Long-term care residents and veterans receive hand-made quilts
Residents at The Meadows long-term care facility and several military veterans will enjoy the warmth and comfort of hand-made quilts provided by the Southwest Quilter's Guild.
The presentation of 56 wheelchair lap quilts to The Meadows and seven quilts to military veterans took place during a ceremony at the long-term care facility, March 16.
Guild member Cecilia Mulhern was the coordinator of the project. The group of about 25 members will share quilts every year with different organizations, and they decided for the 2018-19 sewing year to donate quilts to The Meadows and to Quilts of Valour.
“When we started with the project in the fall, I had optimistically thought that we would do 30,” she said. “I thought if we can do 30 quilts I'll be over the moon, and then as the word got out different people became involved.”
Quilters who are not members of the Southwest Quilter's Guild also participated in this project. These nonmembers are from Swift Current, Gull Lake, Hazlet and Tompkins.
“So on behalf of the guild, I would like to say thank you for everyone who quilted,” she mentioned. “We appreciate it very much.”
Quilters used The Meadows as a convenient location for some of their sew days, and they had opportunities to connect with residents.
We've had some really good interactions,” she said. “We've had lots of encouragement from residents that come to see what's going on.”
The Southwest Quilter's Guild received a grant of $1,000 through SaskEnergy's Share the Warmth program. The money was used to purchase batting and backing material for the project.
Renee Hovdestad, a health services manager at The Meadows, expressed gratitude on behalf of the residents, families and staff for this large donation of lap quilts.
“It's pretty exciting, not only because of the gift of the quilts, but it's the gift of friendship from the ladies that came in and did the quilting,” she said. “It's the friendship and it's an activity for the residents to come and see when the ladies are quilting here and build friendships.”
This was the largest single donation of quilts ever made to the long-term care facility in Swift Current, and they will be a real benefit to residents.
“The majority of our residents are in wheelchairs,” she noted. “We will check and see, and do a survey to see which residents would benefit most and then we'll be able to make a decision and hand them out to the people who need them the most to keep them warm when they're in their wheelchairs.”
Swift Current resident Marcie Erick, a regional coordinator for Quilts of Valour Canada, presented quilts to seven military veterans. The recipients were Jason Loeppky of Waldeck and Swift Current residents Les Ferris, Fidel Frenette, John Friesen, Andy Keys, Peter Rymes, and Lloyd Williams.
Friesen and Williams were both pleasantly surprised to receive quilts, and expressed their appreciation for the gesture when they spoke to the Prairie Post.
Williams, who will soon celebrate his 93rd birthday, was the oldest recipient. He received his infantry training in 1945, but the Second World War ended before his unit left Canada. He was deployed to a prisoner of war camp for German officers in Wainwright, Alberta, where he served until 1946.
Friesen was an airplane mechanic from 1951 to 1956. NATO pilots from Europe and the United Kingdom came to Canada during those early Cold War years to receive their training. He was stationed at various airfields across the country, where he serviced Harvard and Beechcraft training planes.
Loeppky served for 10 years in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He was with 440 Squadron's search and rescue in Edmonton and also with 402 Squadron, which is a training and navigation school, in Winnipeg.
“I'm absolutely shocked and honoured,” he said about receiving a quilt. “I never thought that I would get one. I've known of the program for a few years, and I just never thought I would get one, because I never served overseas. ... It will definitely get a special place.”
Les Ferris served for six years in the Canadian Army with the 2nd and 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, as well as with 2 Service Battalion, Petawawa. He was overseas for six months in Cyprus, where Canadian forces were deployed as part of the United Nations peacekeeping force on the island.
“I'm very humbled, I'm very honoured,” he said after the presentation. “It surprised me actually when they reached out and told me that they heard I had served and they liked to present a quilt. It's very nice.”
Erick's goal as Quilts of Valour Canada representative is to reach out to as many veterans as possible and to present them with a quilt. She is able to combine two passions through her role.
“Military veterans and quilting are two things I'm very passionate about,” she said. “We make quilts and hand them out to veterans, and we prioritize our World War Two and our Korean War veterans, Bosnia and Afghanistan as well. For me, I also prioritize veterans that live with PTSD. That's something that's really important to me.”
Each hand-made quilt has a back label with the recipient's name and the name of the quilter who worked on it. It also indicates the name of any sponsor. Two of the quilts presented on March 16 were sponsored by W.W. Smith Insurance. She enjoys to talk with veterans, and each presentation is unique and a special moment.
“I love seeing the different veterans come in and none of them knew each other and now a whole bunch of them do,” she said. “They shake hands and they say hi and they meet and where were you and what did you do, and they can all talk to each other. You're bringing in seven people that don't know each other and seven people leave that are now connected, because they're all veterans living in the same community.”
She has visited various communities to present quilts to veterans, including Beechy, Lucky Lake and Shaunavon. These presentations can be public or more private, and she is always trying to find more veterans.
“It is hard to find them,” she said. “I reach out to people and talk to them all the time, if you know veterans or if you know of somebody and especially within our community. If you have a relative or somebody that you knew or that you served with who would benefit from a quilt of valour and they live anywhere in Canada, then we have reps in every province. We can make that happen too, but living in Swift Current, I want to make sure that I get all of our local veterans, but I can't find them unless people give me their names and that's tricky.”
Erick's contact information and the contact details for all regional representatives are available on the Quilts of Valour Canada website at www.quiltsofvalour.ca