Why 99-Year-Old Lillian Weber Sews A Dress A Day

If you are like most people, you probably do not recall the last time you performed a random act of kindness even for a family member, leave alone complete strangers. But that is exactly what 99-year-old Lillian Weber has been doing every day, since 2011.

Her kind deed? Custom tailoring a pretty dress a day, for a charity organization called "Little Dresses for Africa" that distributes them to impoverished young girls in need of clothing. The Iowa resident said she along with a few friends (all over 80 years of age), decided to help the organization after they watched a documentary about their mission in 2011.

Lillian says she begins working on a new dress every morning and continues till midday, when she stops for a short break. She resumes in the afternoon and continues well into the evening, stopping only after the masterpiece is complete. While a dress a day may appear speedy quick for most people, the 99-year-old seamstress says could be faster, if she didn't put an extra special twist on each of her creations, so that they are all unique.

Since she began, Lillian has sewn over 840 dresses. While her goal is to complete 1,000 before her 100th birthday in May 2015, Lillian plans to continue for as long as she can, simply because she loves doing it. What's amazing is that Lillian's good deeds would have gone unnoticed had it not been for her friend Tonya Urbatsch, who nominated her for Quad Cities television station WQAD's ''Pay it Forward" award, in August. She of course won the award hands down!

It is thanks to people like Lillian that "Little Dresses for Africa" has been able to donate 2.5 million dresses to not just the girls in Africa but also Haiti, Honduras,Thailand, Mexico and even, parts of the United States.

Resources: Huffingtonpost.com,odditycentral.com