19 Jun Quilts of Valor

I hope the program at the June meeting was good for everybody. Thank you all for the kind words and surprises. I was a nervous wreck, but I thought Maureen (Prester-Henry) did a great job with her presentations to Eli and David. It seems like things went well for our veterans, so: “mission accomplished.”

During the talk I mentioned how the Quilts of Valor program makes a “spider web” and our goal is to assist in that. That reminds me of a spider web story that occurred on May 29. I got a request from National about a veteran who lives in Franklin, so I called the person who had nominated the vet to set things up. Surprise! She lives in Texas. She said she couldn’t come to Franklin and requested that I work with the vet’s wife. I emailed the vet’s wife and she was thrilled; she arranged for the presentation to take place in the club room of their apartment. Then I got an email from the guy who heads up their veteran’s group, and he invited me to stay and have lunch with the guys. When I arrived, we had about twenty vets from all the branches of service, and the lady who had nominated the recipient had decided to drive to Franklin after all, because they are such good friends and she didn’t want to miss seeing her friend receive his quilt. We were able to have her and the vet’s wife wrap him in his quilt! Everybody applauded and thanked our guild for our hard work in making such a beautiful quilt. Later I got emails from the group leader and the nominator that commented again on how special the recognition was.

Thank you to everybody who participates in making quilts for our QOV program. You have no idea how special your work is to vets who receive a quilt. There is a lot going on with requests and your participation allows the vets to be recognized.

At our June meeting, I hope I recognized all the folks who give so freely of their time and talent. If I missed someone, I apologize. The QOV committee members work so hard to make everything come together, and your work is appreciated not only by me, but by the vets, their families, and their friends. They all appreciate the work our guild does for our veterans.

Pat McMahon