Volunteers sew their salute to soldiers

Wanting to raise the level of national appreciation for former and current soldiers, local members of the Quilts of Valor Foundation are combining their quilting passion and skills to express their gratitude.

Their love is sewed onto every quilt they make. Literally.

Linda Schuler, who is from Corpus Christi, Texas, but comes back to live in Portland for six months every year, initiated a trend within the Montavilla Quilts of Valor group, which was established on Flag Day (June 14), by stitching the word “love” on all of her quilts.

A Christmas present given by her older sister when Schuler was just a teenager inspired the Portland resident to start including the brief but powerful inscription.

“Inside (the box) was a piece of paper,” she said about the gift. “And it said something was inside. ‘Let’s see if you can find it.’ My brother and I couldn’t tell what it was. My mother couldn’t read it, and my other brother couldn’t read anything. My father came home that night, picked it up and said, ‘It says there’s love inside, let’s see if you can find it.’”

When she first began to quilt, Schuler recalled that particular Christmas and embraced her sister’s idea by applying it to her quilts “because I was so touched that she had done that with us.”

“I just think, ‘Why not?’” she said. “There’s so much time and love put in every quilt that you make anyway. And it’s just so easy to write the word in.”

Having donated quilts to various places such as nursing homes, summer youth camps and children’s hospitals in Texas, Schuler joined the Quilts of Valor group last month after her friend Barbara Haide of Gresham roped her into the organization.

“I appreciate the veterans (and) what they have done,” she said. “I wasn’t particularly looking for one more group to quilt for. There are plenty of groups I could quilt for, but I do think there’s not enough appreciation for our men and women when they come home.”

Comfort from home

Schuler understands the emotional aspect of having loved ones sacrificing their well-being to serve the country. Her older brother served in the Korean War when she was 13. She recalled giving him a silver dollar she cherished as a youngster before he left for the Philippines, where he was stationed.

“I told him it would keep him safe,” she said. “And when he came home, he said, ‘I’m returning your silver dollar to you so it can keep you safe.’”

Now Schuler dedicates her time to using her quilting expertise to provide comfort to those who experienced the same journey as her brother, wanting to make quilts until she can no longer make them. Her arthritis will not stop her, she said.

Deputy Director Lori Kutch, who lives in Wenatchee, Wash., recruits and guides all of the QOV representatives from both the state and regional levels.

She had many family members who served in the U.S. Army: her father, uncles and her brothers, who fought in the Vietnam War.

“They weren’t treated very well when they returned from their service,” Kutch said. “My brother was spit on at an airport, and I just had sort of taken up that that’s never going to happen to anyone again on my watch.”

Kutch said she has personally seen the healing the quilts have provided.

“I’ve seen tears coming to the eyes of Vietnam veterans who have never in years been acknowledged for their service. There’s a lot of emotional wounds and a lot of internal turmoil that goes with being at war,” she said.

Montavilla QOV coordinators Debbie Turner from Ridgefield, Wash., and Judy Fletcher from Amboy, Wash., manage the flow and logistics of the local organization, which has grown to 75 members. The majority of quilters come from the Beaverton area, Turner said.

The foundation lists guidelines the quilters must abide by.

All quilts must consist of only red, blue, white and gold colors. They must be made of high-quality Quilters Cotton, which gives a soft feeling to the skin, a crucial aspect especially for quilts that are sent to injured soldiers. Designs should remain gender-neutral and be free of any religious content or juvenile patterns, Turner said.

Expression of love

Turner, a retired schoolteacher who started quilting about 35 years ago, enjoys not only quilting but coaching those who want to learn how to quilt. {img:1188}

Her passion is in the Under Our Wings program, a program that welcomes people inexperienced in quilting and connects them with an “instructor.”

“(Quilting) is a great way to express yourself with fabric and art,” she said. “The love, the relaxation, just the serenity ... I don’t have to think about anything. I just get involved in what’s going on with my quilt.”

With teamwork, the QOV chapter made and sent its first quilt to Derrick Goodman in Missouri on the Fourth of July.

Goodman was a soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan about a year ago and had undergone several surgeries.

“It was really nice that our first (quilt) was presented on the Fourth of July,” Fletcher said.

Although she didn’t see how he reacted to the surprise, Fletcher said she talked to somebody who attended the ceremony and heard he was “so pleased that it brought him to tears.”

The current plan for the local QOV is to continue to make as many quilts as the volunteers can, trying to complete at least six by next month’s meeting. Quilters hope to present the comforting creations to two veterans whose names were submitted in quilt requests. One of them served in World War II, and the other in the Korean War. Both are residing in care facilities.

Wounded soldiers will also be returning home from deployments in October, Turner said, which will keep the group busy.

“A lot of the quilters have the passion and the heart,” Turner said. “They want to do this service. They want to serve their nation in any way they can.”

‘We call it an honor’

In a case where a QOV chapter does not make enough quilts for the number of returning soldiers, the group can seek assistance from other chapters.

“All these ladies working for the QOV are in it for the charity,” Fletcher said. “Actually, we don’t even call it a charity. We call it an honor, and it really is.”

Destinations coordinator Marcella Pirner-Cormier of Gardner, Mass., develops and maintains points of contact at military bases, hospitals and VA facilities located both in the United States and overseas in Afghanistan and Germany.

“I have a bunch of destinations that request a certain number of quilts each month,” Pirner-Cormier said. “And then I also have ones that request a certain number of quilts each week.”

The foundation has 11 monthly destinations and nine weekly destinations. The weekly ones are overseas sites.

“Currently we’re supposed to try to send 105 quilts a week,” Pirner-Cormier said. “That’s recently gone up by 40 quilts a week, and that is because the fighting in Afghanistan has been particularly prevalent this summer.”

Soldiers who were recently wounded and dwell in hospitals overseas take priority in receiving quilts, as QOV aims to bestow comfort on those who are the farthest away from their families.

“I feel it’s important to realize that, like so many people say, freedom isn’t free,” Pirner-Cormier said. “No matter what your political beliefs are, whether we should be over there or not, QOV is a non-political organization. And, we recognize that these men and women are doing their job and that we should provide honor.”

There have been more than 67,000 quilts donated to combat service members so far nationwide.

The foundation has also reached the television screen, as Board member Marianne Fons of Winterset, Iowa, produced a documentary special about QOV last year. The program will air nationally on PBS stations for three years.