Woman Gives Up Birthday Presents to Collect Underwear for Needy

By Tony Herrman, Hastings ( Neb.) Tribune

All Jan Shambaugh wanted for her birthday was underwear, and she got it.

In fact, she received more pairs and packages than she ever expected.

For her 65th birthday Nov. 13, the Hastings resident asked for an “Undie Sunday” birthday shower to benefit the Orphan Grain Train, an international non-profit organization with headquarters in Norfolk

Shambaugh said she got the idea for the shower when she and her sister, Kay Schutte, attended an Orphan Grain Train benefit at Zion Lutheran Church in Hastings. The two saw a flyer encouraging Sunday school groups to have “Undie Sundays.”

“I thought it would be fun to see if I could get 65 packages of underwear for the Orphan Grain Train instead of presents,” Shambaugh said.

So, Schutte prepared a flier of her own and e-mailed it to her sister’s fiends and family members

The flier quoted Shambaugh, who said, “I have everything I need and wouldn’t it be fun to have an ‘Undie Sunday’ shower and see if I would get 65 packages of undies for the Orphan Grain Train?"

Aside from a few friends who sent pairs of thong underwear as a joke, those who received the email embraced the project, Shambaugh said.

The reaction was really, really good,” Shambaugh said. “So many people sent underwear. We even got packages from some people I didn’t know.”

The response was so great that Shambaugh wound up with 258 packages of underwear, socks and T-shirts — about four times her goal.

“It was really fun doing it,” she said. “I’d come home, and there would be all these packages, and you knew what was in them but it was fun to see what you got and see them add up.”

Shambaugh received about the same number of packages for women’s underwear, at 63 pairs, boys’ underwear, 62 pairs, and girls’ underwear, 78 pairs. She received fewer packages of men’s underwear, with 30 pairs.

She also received 25 packages of socks and T-shirts.

“When my grandkids came, they each brought a package in their own size,” Shambaugh said. “When my 4-year-old granddaughter brought her package, she liked the underwear so much she wanted to keep them.”

When Shambaugh first began receiving packages of underwear, she stored them in a printer paper box. Once the box was overflowing, Shambaugh began adding boxes, eventually filling six printer paper boxes and three larger boxes.

“They are full,” she said.

According to its Web site, the Orphan Grain Train was co-founded in 1991 by Rev. Ray S. Wilke, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Norfolk, and Clayton Andrew’s, also of Norfolk.

Orphan Grain Train’s name originated from Wilke’s desire to gather train loads of donated grain in the Midwest and ship it to starving orphans in Eastern European orphanages.

The organization originally served orphans, but Shambaugh said it has extended its mission to anyone in need. She said most recently the Orphan Grain Train has been helping victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

"I think it's wonderful," Schutte said of the Orphan Grain Train. "One of the things that amazes me is not only the work they do, but how they've expanded the work they do in the short time they've been around."

Shambaugh and her sister already tried to deliver the boxes twice, only to be thwarted by inclement weather and closing because of holidays.

“Because the Grain Train headquarters are in Norfolk, we thought it would be fun to take them to Norfolk,” Shambaugh said.

They will try again this Friday making the nearly 135-mile trek to Norfolk with the nine boxes in Shambaugh’s Oldsmobile Aurora.

“We’re going to make them fit,” Schutte said. “But it will be a tight fit, let me put it that way.”

This article appeared on Wednesday, January 4, 2006, in the Hastings Tribune. It was reprinted with permission.
Jan and her sister Kay made it to Norfolk in early January, delivered the boxes, and took a tour of the Orphan Grain Train warehouse.