Quilting for Heroes - Quilts of Valor

I have been supporting Quilts of Valor for nearly a year now and am closing in on quilting my 80th quilt.

Take a minute and watch the video below - it gives a quick overview and reminded me of a recent experience I had observing the awarding of several Quilts of Valor. In case you don’t know of the organization, the Quilts of Valor Foundation coordinates thousands of folks piecing, quilting, binding, tagging, and ultimately awarding a Quilt of Valor to a worthy recipient who has been touched in some way by war, so far honoring more than 220,000 folks.

The award process is both humbling and inspiring - the awardee is brought to the front of the group, asked to to stand if she or he is able, and then the awardee shares some of their experiences in activities touched by war. The quilt is awarded by “wrapping” the awardee with the quilt while sharing the thanks and appreciation of the quilting community for the awardees sacrifice and service to the people of the United States of America. The hope is these quilts in addition to showing appreciation will also provide the awardee comfort and most importantly awareness that completely average Americans are thinking about them and supporting them - its rare for civilians to be able to give back a little to those who have given so much.

Back to the recent award ceremony - four recipients were honored with a Quilt of Valor at the recent AQS Paducah Quilt Week - including one of them who had served in World War II and participated in the Battle of the Bulge. Not a dry eye in the house. The most significant event there was not the awarding of a Quilt of Valor, but the humble request from a former Quilt of Valor recipient to get put on the list for another quilt as he had derived so much comfort from his quilt that he had slap wore it out!