With Gratitude In Every Stitch
I think I remember Birdzeye say she/he was doing something like this.....Great job....
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.
His is the ministry of the quilts.
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A Stitch of Hope
More than 7,900 "comfort quilts," each carefully stitched with love and gratitude, have been sent through the Quilts of Valor Foundation to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed and 70 other U.S. military medical centers.
Participating Groups
The online quilting community has a long reach. Here are several national organizations stitching quilts for soldiers or families of soldiers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan:
Quilts of Valor Foundation: Catherine Roberts's Delaware organization gives quilts to wounded service members and connects quilters with longarmers, who donate their time to machine-finish quilts. The group has made 7,900 quilts. http://www.qovf.org
Operation Kid Comfort: The Armed Services YMCA collects photographs from military families and uses volunteers to transfer images of deployed service members onto quilts for their children 5 and younger. Older children get quilted pillows. The project began at Fort Bragg in 2003 and has bestowed 3,000 quilts. http://www.asymca.org/c4-2.html
Home of the Brave Quilts: California quilter Don Beld started this group in 2004 to comfort grieving families of U.S. service members who have died. About 2,000 have been donated by groups in 48 states and the District. These quilts are copies of those made in the Civil War for soldiers to use as bedrolls or on hospital cots. http://www.homeofthebravequilts.com
Marine Comfort Quilts: Originally started by two Marine mothers in 2003, the group quilts for families of service members who have died in Iraq, regardless of service branch. The group collects squares stitched with messages for the families and has completed 2,563 quilts. http://www.marinecomfortquilts.us
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.
the rest.....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...013001871.html
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Originally Posted by stephanie
