10/19/2008 11:21:00 AM When soldiers sleep,
they dream of peace
Members of the Hearts and Hands Quilt Club, Becker. (Photos by Bill Morgan.)
COORDINATED EFFORT. Minnesota guild leader Jean Loken displays a finished quilt. She has donated 49 such quilts to families around the state.
By Bill Morgan Staff Writer
Peace. It's on everyone's minds these days. It's especially on the minds of the families who have loved ones in the Middle East. As the brave and heroic soldiers go about risking their lives to protect ours, a few local patriotic and warm-hearted ladies utilize their talents to bring comfort to families who have lost a soldier due to the war effort.
"O! say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming."
The local Heart and Hands Quilt Club (HAHQC) in Becker is a group of 32 women who have partnered with a national organization to provide handmade quilts to families of fallen servicemen and women. The project is called the "Home of the Brave Quilt Project (HOTBQP)" and was founded by quilt historian Don Beld from California in 2004.
In July of that year, Citrus Belt Quilters Guild of Redlands, CA, decided that they wanted to honor and show respect for military men and women who had died while serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.
They started stitching reproduction Civil War quilts based on one of the few existent Civil War U. S. Sanitary Commission quilts owned by the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands and began presenting them to their families.
The Sanitary Commission, a volunteer organization charged with overseeing the sanitary conditions in the Union military hospitals recognized that there was a terrible shortage of bed coverings, bandages, socks, and other clothing articles in the hospitals. And there's still the same needs today.
"Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?"
The Home of the Brave Quilt Project is a grassroots movement and not a non-profit organization. It has spread to almost all 50 states, the District of Columbia and has honorary chapters in England, Germany and Australia. In Minnesota, a guild was formed and that's where the Heart and Hands Quilt Club of Becker decided to join the cause.
Over the years they have been more than generous with their gifts and talents. Just this past year they donated a quilt to the Knutson family who had their home destroyed by fire in September and donated a quilt and three fleece blankets to the McDonald family who also lost their home to fire in August.
As if the quilt ladies didn't have enough to do, they now are devoting their talents and time to this worthy cause...and their efforts are being noticed, even worldwide! Marilyn Bujalski of the HAHQC of Becker has a pen pal she writes to in France and in one correspondence she mentioned the project.
A short while later, Bujalski received over 70 quilt blocks donated to the project by the French women. The union between the local quilters and the ladies from France is now called the "French Connection".
"And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there."
At the meeting this past Monday night, 26 of the 32 members brought their own blocks to add to the French donation which now totals 214 squares. When assembled, 14 finished quilts will be donated to the HOB project.
To learn more about
the Home of the Brave
Quilt Project, visit
their website at:
www.homeofthebravequilts.com.
Jean Loken is the Minnesota coordinator for the HOB project and she drove all the way up to the meeting in Becker from Apple Valley. She has hand-delivered most of the quilts herself to the families and sees the gratitude first hand.
"There are 65 fallen soldiers from Minnesota and we've made and handed out 49 quilts to their families," said Loken. "Nationally, 2,000 quilts have been presented to families and it keeps growing". Packaged with the quilts is a sympathy card, a certificate and the history of HOTBQP.
O! say does that star spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."
The Becker Hearts and Hands Quilt Club consists of the following members: Lori Altrichter, Lynda Angrimson, Sherry Benson, Marliss Bock, Marilyn Bujalski, Kathy Crabtree, Barbara Erickson, Kris Fischbach, Lois Fischer, Debra Flatla, Leanne Golley, Brenda Hinkemeyer, Dee Holt, Gwen Johnson, Jean Josewski, Rosalie Klinker, Karen Ludvigson, Vicki MacGlover, Joyce Matuska, Jan Miller, Kaye Novak, Celestine Pappenfus, Rose Peterson, Mary Plas, Donna Primus, Joyce Reginek, Glenda Sakry, Jolaine Schreifels, Evora Sorokie, Joanne Soyett, Phyliss Steckelberg and Fawn Wright.
For information on joining the group or the cause, contact Joanne Soyett at 320-743-4401.
