MARTHA'S TASK

Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

It is time now for our community connection and it's being brought to you by Wesley and Kitty College and Tall Grass Motors and it is our pleasure to have Miss Laura Walton in studio today with Martha's Task. First of all, good Friday to you. It is a beautiful day to have you in here.

Good Friday to you too. I'm very grateful to be here and looking forward to a long Memorial Day weekend. But first we're going to talk about Martha's Tasks.

You better believe it, because we've got a big birthday party coming up.

We do. We are so excited. Tom. We are going to have a lou Ou theme party.

I like it.

Yeah. So it's going to be June twelfth, ten am to six pm at Martha's Task, which is seven eighteen South Johnstone Own. Everyone is welcome to come and we are going to have mocktails and tropical type food and we've got a lot of really cool tropical merchandise that our seamstresses have been working on. It's so much fun.

Now, how much to cost you get into this? Soare?

It is absolutely free? You gotta be kidding. No, you just come on in. We're just really happy to be able to celebrate twenty five years and we want everyone to come join us a luel.

You've got handmade items made right here in Bartlesville by local folks, and you're going to have mock tails and a whole kinds of fun with a Luau theme.

And who could say no?

Right right, It's just what you want to do to help kick off your summer. It's going to be a lot of fed and a good cause.

It's a great cause. Tell us a little bit about Martha's Task. What is the task of Martha's Task?

Okay, so Martha's Task is an organization that works with low income women. So we provide job training, both sewing training and crafting programs to help women earn an income and skills so that they can continue to earn an income into the future.

This is great, and you've got quite a number of successes. We're not going to go into the numbers here today, but I can tell you that there are folks who really get turned around. And not only I can do attitude, but it's watched me succeed attitude.

It is I mean, I can't tell you how many times somebody comes in and they're coming for the first time and they're down. They are coming from a bad situation, maybe domestic violence, maybe homeless. Things are not good for them at the time. But when they come in and they start working on projects and they're focusing their mind on choosing color patterns and putting things together, they forget

You know, sometimes when you feel beaten down like that, you feel the heaviness of the world. Just actually having some kind of control over a project empowers.

You in so many ways.

And I can see where that art therapy really pays big dividends.

It does, it does. It is something I really wasn't expecting when I first came into this job. I didn't think about that aspect of it until I saw it in person. And it is a beautiful thing.

And so but surely they start taking back control of their life and everything else, and it just kind of grows from there like a neat little flower.

It does. And we know when we see someone make enough money to be able to get off the street, to pay for an apartment deposit, to get a car, you know, to be able to pay for a car, those are huge victories for us. We are just very very excited when that happens.

Miracles kind of happen every day there.

Huh, Yes, they do.

Twenty five years of miracles right here in Bartlesville. Martha's Task, it's the big luau coming up and you can come in and have some fun, buy some merchandise, visit with people, learn a little bit more about Martha's Task, and you know, this is a great way to celebrate. It's also a great way to become familiar with your program.

Absolutely absolutely, and we want to celebrate all that we have been through the years and all the support that we've gotten from the community to help us get there. We started in the year two thousand in Saint James Catholic Church actually really yeahs side of town, and it

My goodness sakes that fast. Huh.

Yes, you see, good things do happen, and sometimes they can happen in a hurry, and that kind of did. But now twenty five years later, you look back on that and there's a lot of success. Stori's a lot of things to be proud of.

There are. It's really it's been very rewarding to see how people have grown and just learned new things and turned their lives around. Not everybody who comes through our door is going to be a permanent seamstress.

No, No.

A lot of times people are coming in and because of the trauma they've been through or because of generational poverty, they're learning how to follow a schedule, they're learning how to have a job and a work ethic, and so it's really wonderful to see someone start from ground zero and learn all those things and look forward to coming into class and being proud of what they're doing. And it's just fabulous.

In the aha moment, you know when you see the lights come on in their eyes like wow.

I can do this.

Yes.

That just got to make your hearts well.

Yes. And to see people develop self confidence and independence and be able to help support themselves and their families, that's all huge. And have hope, hope is huge, you know, giving some money.

Thing, this is great, And let's celebrate twenty five years and let's make sure that we don't have to really hope. We can just ensure that you'll be around for another twenty five years to help out the community and the people you serve.

Absolutely and you know you can help with that through our twenty five thousand for twenty five years fundraising campaign. How does this work? Well, we are you know, we're taking cash donations for that and you can give through our face page or through pay pal. You can mail things to our office at seven eighteen South Johnstone. You can call me on the phone at nine one eight three three six eight two seven five and I will be happy to take your donation that way.

Believe me, she answers the phone.

I did.

This is great, this is so good. I see this happening in.

Record time for thank you, thank you. We are really just so happy for all the support we've had through the years. I mean, it's not just financial donations. It's people volunteering their time. It's people donating fabric and sewing notions, crafting supplies. We take all of those and that's what helps us do our work. We could not survive without that because those things are expensive to buy.

They are they don't grow on trees.

They do not, the father used to say. But it does cost money. And this is going to be a great way to get behind the campaign. But first things first, go to the luell have some fun and then happily write there.

Check, there you go, There you go. That's a great plan.

Well there you go. This is really really neat that Laura. You know, I've seen you out about with different events. You had a big one here recently just a couple of months ago that had pretty good crowd.

Well we have. We had the Personality the Purse auction in Tea, which was lots of fun, and that was April twenty ninth. We had our Marti Gras party, which was lots of fun, and that was much first, always, always, always, and that was March first, So you know, we're just keeping the celebrations rolling all year. Line.

Well, it did something truly great to celebrate, and that's putting people back on the path where they need to be exactly.

Wow.

You know something, it's always great when near in here because there's all kinds of positive vibes coming from you and also coming from the fine work that happens at Martha's task.

Well, thank you, thank you so much.

And folks still forget about the campaign, get a hold of Laura and get ahold of Facebook or the website. Look up how to make sure that your gift keeps giving, So make sure that happens. Don't forget that after the show's over. Make sure that you get the check book out.

Let's do it.

Of course. Of course, can I tell you about one other opportunity?

Bye, golly, you can.

Well, we know that not everybody can get to our luou party, but they might want to help celebrate our birthday.

Let's talk about the birthday.

So we have an auction online that we have set up. It's just that I'm still just getting it going. I've got some of the items up there. It's at thirty two auctions dot com and it's going to run through June thirteenth. Okay, So we have some fun merchandise in there. We have this beautiful quilt that was donated to us, and so that's a good way for people to be able to bid on those items and support us. And you can live anywhere in the United States and we will ship it to you.

Share that link with family and friends.

Yes, thirty two auctions dot com. And it's something about Martha's test birthday.

Well, you'll find it.

All you have to do is search it.

We will.

We'll put that in the news story that we're going to put together too, so folks you can share that too. Will also put it on the Facebook thingy wonderful.

Yeah, well, we like doing that.

We take care of our friends and partners here in town and all over our listening area. We want to ensure that good things keep on growing.

Well, you all do a great job of supporting the community, and we really appreciate it.

We try.

We live here too. Maybe that should be our slogan. Came on, we live here too, we too, Martha It is always a pleasure. I mean, I'm sorry, Laura Walton. With Martha's task, it's always a pleasure to have you in here. You just light up the room.

Thank you so much. I appreciate being here.

All right, folks, we'll give you all the information here and just a little bit online, and we'll recap it and put it into a nice story here and share it with others too, because this is a great project, this is a great organization.

It's well worth your support.