Fort Hood Quilt update 11.13.09

Happy News - yesterday 15 quilts arrived!!!  Many of you have asked for confirmation of when your quilt(s) arrives.  Since the quilts are being shipped to my son's house in Killeen, and not my own; this presents the tiniest challenge.  Luke is logging all of the quilts as they come in, and he will send the list to me, and I'll post it soon. 

Luke and I discussed last night the wisdom in holding all of the quilts until the 31 arrive, or delivering the quilts in batches, since some of the wounded have been released, and others are in one of three hospitals.  What we decided was to for him to take the quilts he receives over the next two days, and deliver these to the Chaplain's office on Monday.  Several of you have said that you are planning on shipping your quilts today, or this weekend so by the end of next week everything should have arrived.  He will then deliver the remainder to the Chaplain. 

The Fort Hood Public Relations Officer will be photographing the quilts prior to them being turned over to the Chaplain; I'll post the pictures as soon as I receive them.  Rest assured that everything is being documented, and that your quilts are in loving hands!

Cherri

P.S. With the quilts that have been committed, I believe that we have all of the quilts needed for the wounded.  I've been in contact with the group Home of the Brave Quilts, who will be providing quilts to the individual children, and families of those that were killed.  If you have a quilt to donate for this cause, please email Sandi at homeofthebravequiltsnational at yahoo dot com

 

Comments

[magikquilter]

thanks so much for the update cherri...the quilts are in good hands ...from start to finish and will do a lot of good.

thanks for doing this...and luke too!

[Mary]

I got my two shipped today Cherri. One was pieced by San in NC and the other is one of our HeartStrings quilts; both were quilted and bound by me.

[Debbie in Austin]

That is so nice of you :) Here's the real problem at Ft. Hood regarding quilts.

My friend, a wonderful lady by the name of Audrey Winter, discovered the QOV was delivering some quilts to San Antonio base. The Austin Guild also delivered quilts to the San Antonio base. Together, they provided so many quilts to San Antonio, that they could not shut their doors! They had requested to NOT have so many quilts delivered, as it was more than they could use. About the same time, she found out Ft. Hood had NEVER received a quilt! She contacted QOV, to ensure Ft. Hood was added to the list, and still, no quilts were given to Ft. Hood, even though our quilters designated for them, and requested their quilts be sent there (as was common in other areas of the US). But, still, Ft. Hood was left out. No one wanted to send quilts to our largest base in the US! She was appalled.

Audrey decided to begin her own group, The Thank You Quilters, headquartered in Cedar Park, TX, to make and deliver quilts to them herself! She was determined to do the best she could, and to enlist the aid of as many friends and fellow quilters as possible - by herself, and on her own funds!

Fast forward, a few years later, she has guilds from several areas of TX quilting for them now. She has a group that meets bi-weekly at a local Bernina store who so kindly donates their space for sewing these tops. Audrey has a list of local longarmers, myself included, who quilt these for her. Audrey herself, as well as other guilds she's gotten involved, deliver these quilts on a schedule to the base.

The soldiers LOVE them, and many cry when they receive one. The soldiers came to our guild show this year to give a very public Thank You to Audrey for her work in getting all the soldiers and children a quilt. Many other groups have called TV News stations and newspapers to have a story done on themselves for their part, then disappeared into the woodwork never to be seen again. Except Audrey, who's hung in there, gathering donations for materials where possible and motivating people to become involved. She is one dedicated lady!

She is an amazing person and is very grateful the program has taken off like it has. You can find more information here: http://www.thankyouquilters.org/

If you would like to contact her for help or to become involved, please go to the link where you can find out about the program. We need all the help we can get, as it's totaly donation based, and of course, LOVE based for our soldiers!

Debbie in Austin