lily
01-31-2007, 11:40 PM
I've made a few in my day and I'm sure some of you here have had someone make one for you. You can't buy the feeling of comfort that a quilt handmade just for you gives you. Bless these women. It's a lot of work and every minute you spend choosing the pattern, making the top and quilting the quilt, you think of the person you are making it for.
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001871.html?referrer=email)
With Gratitude In Every Stitch
At Walter Reed, Wounded Troops Find Comfort in Donated Quilts
By Jura Koncius
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page B01
The carefully packed boxes stack up daily in the chaplain's quarters at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, about 50 a week. The instructions read
simply: "Please give this to a soldier." Chaplain John L. Kallerson, an Army
major, gently opens each one and places the contents around his windowless
office. Then he lays his big hands on the piles and says a blessing.
A phone call to the chaplain four years ago has created a national movement
to say thank you to soldiers wounded in the war on terror.
More than 7,900 "comfort quilts," each carefully stitched with love and
gratitude, have been sent through the Quilts of Valor Foundation to the
wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and 70 other U.S. military medical centers.
Kallerson prays over and hands out quilts from church groups,
schoolchildren, quilting bees. Quilts made from accomplished artists whose
designs sell for thousands. Quilts with bears, fish, basketballs. Quilts
with hot-pink flowers for wounded women.
Amish and Mennonites have sent them anonymously. Children at the Colorado
School for the Deaf and the Blind have created Braille quilts for soldiers
who have lost their sight. Some donors, such as Native Americans who sent
quilts bearing warrior symbols, have requested that their quilts be given to
kindred spirits. Many have special messages: "You are our hero." "You are
very brave."
Some arrive with letters, tapes or prayers.
"This is a gift from the heartland," Kallerson said. "Soldiers get CD
players and iPods and DVDs, but this is the greatest gift of all. It comes
from people's hearts. This is a simple thank you for your service."
Deborah Francisco, a defense contractor from St. Leonard, spent a year
making one with the black and gold Army 1st Cavalry logo. "I hope the
soldier who got it feels like someone is thinking of him," Francisco said.
This is how it got started: An accomplished Delaware quilter, Catherine
Roberts, contacted Kallerson. She wanted to sew a blue and white Ohio Star
quilt and donate it to a wounded service member. For every soldier killed,
she knew there were 10 wounded.
"I had this vision in my head of a soldier waking up with horrible
flashbacks," said Roberts, 57, a midwife and a quilter for 25 years. "I saw
him wrapping himself up in a quilt."
Kallerson talks to a lot of people who want to donate things, but the
hospital doesn't have the space or staff to handle them. Still, he was
intrigued by Roberts's offer. He had someone in mind, an amputee from
Minnesota, who was experiencing phantom pain. He gratefully received the
quilt.
Then Roberts realized that she needed to reach more soldiers. "I got all my
quilting people together and told them we had to start making quilts for all
the wounded. Plenty of people were sending goggles and rat traps and things
like that to the soldiers in the war, and there were programs for the
families of our fallen heroes. But I didn't see anything targeting service
members who had been wounded."
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/30/AR2007013001871.html?referrer=email)
With Gratitude In Every Stitch
At Walter Reed, Wounded Troops Find Comfort in Donated Quilts
By Jura Koncius
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; Page B01
The carefully packed boxes stack up daily in the chaplain's quarters at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, about 50 a week. The instructions read
simply: "Please give this to a soldier." Chaplain John L. Kallerson, an Army
major, gently opens each one and places the contents around his windowless
office. Then he lays his big hands on the piles and says a blessing.
A phone call to the chaplain four years ago has created a national movement
to say thank you to soldiers wounded in the war on terror.
More than 7,900 "comfort quilts," each carefully stitched with love and
gratitude, have been sent through the Quilts of Valor Foundation to the
wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and 70 other U.S. military medical centers.
Kallerson prays over and hands out quilts from church groups,
schoolchildren, quilting bees. Quilts made from accomplished artists whose
designs sell for thousands. Quilts with bears, fish, basketballs. Quilts
with hot-pink flowers for wounded women.
Amish and Mennonites have sent them anonymously. Children at the Colorado
School for the Deaf and the Blind have created Braille quilts for soldiers
who have lost their sight. Some donors, such as Native Americans who sent
quilts bearing warrior symbols, have requested that their quilts be given to
kindred spirits. Many have special messages: "You are our hero." "You are
very brave."
Some arrive with letters, tapes or prayers.
"This is a gift from the heartland," Kallerson said. "Soldiers get CD
players and iPods and DVDs, but this is the greatest gift of all. It comes
from people's hearts. This is a simple thank you for your service."
Deborah Francisco, a defense contractor from St. Leonard, spent a year
making one with the black and gold Army 1st Cavalry logo. "I hope the
soldier who got it feels like someone is thinking of him," Francisco said.
This is how it got started: An accomplished Delaware quilter, Catherine
Roberts, contacted Kallerson. She wanted to sew a blue and white Ohio Star
quilt and donate it to a wounded service member. For every soldier killed,
she knew there were 10 wounded.
"I had this vision in my head of a soldier waking up with horrible
flashbacks," said Roberts, 57, a midwife and a quilter for 25 years. "I saw
him wrapping himself up in a quilt."
Kallerson talks to a lot of people who want to donate things, but the
hospital doesn't have the space or staff to handle them. Still, he was
intrigued by Roberts's offer. He had someone in mind, an amputee from
Minnesota, who was experiencing phantom pain. He gratefully received the
quilt.
Then Roberts realized that she needed to reach more soldiers. "I got all my
quilting people together and told them we had to start making quilts for all
the wounded. Plenty of people were sending goggles and rat traps and things
like that to the soldiers in the war, and there were programs for the
families of our fallen heroes. But I didn't see anything targeting service
members who had been wounded."