Quilts of Valor Volunteers from the Library Piecemakers group draped a quilt around each recipient during a more than hour-long program at the Concord United Methodist Church in Englewood.
The recipients Nov. 10 represented service dating to the 1950s through today with a long list of tasks listed for recipients — ranging from food service to navigators, infantry, service and supply, communications, radar technology and financial management.
The Library Piecemakers group is one of many that gather across the country to make the Quilts of Valor. They use pieces of fabrics including that red, white and blue in color to sew together on the way to creating each quilt.
This group meets at the Vandalia Public Library in May with quilters and volunteers of all skill levels joining forces to make each quilt a reality. The quilts meet guidelines of the national Quilts of Valor project.
The quilts are quilted and prepared for presentation in following months before the presentation occurs. The program uses in person presentation as part of the recognition.
“Each Quilt of Valor is built by loving hands,” recipients were assured by Nonda Harvey of the Library Piecemakers.
The Quilts of Valor is a nonprofit foundation whose goal is stated as covering service members and veterans touched by war with a freedom quilt, honoring them for their sacrifices. The organization was started in 2003 by a mother whose son was deployed overseas.
The lap quilts are presented by program volunteers to veterans and active duty service members who are nominated through a brief form.
There had been 326,777 Quilts of Valor presented in the United States as of Oct. 31. The Vandalia library group has made 173.
Each quilt has the name of the recipient and instructions for laundering.
In addition to the 49 quilts presented at the church program, another nine were being individually presented due to various circumstances such as illness or time conflicts.
More information on the Library Piecemakers is available from charvey3@woh.rr.com. Details of the national effort are available at www.qovf.org.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com.
About the Author