Local Quilting Group Awards Quilts of Valor

PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Username

Password

Login

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.

Email

Submit

← Back

By Emily Bontrager

The Sewcial Quilters of Clark County will be presenting local nominated veterans or service members with a Quilt of Valor (QOV) at the Flag Day celebration on June 14, 2022.

Following the parade at 10:00 a.m., the quilts will be presented on the square in Kahoka.

In 2003, Catherine Roberts founded the Quilts of Valor Foundation, which is a non-profit organization.

According to the QOV website, qovf.org, “The Mission of the Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover Service Members and Veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.”

As of today, the total number of Quilts of Valor awarded to veterans and service members is 302,712 quilts.

Becky Rodgers, 64, is from Clark County and she is a volunteer for QOV.

Becky is a member of two quilting groups who help make the quilts for service members and veterans. She is a part of the Piece Works Quilt of Valor group in Winterset, Iowa, and the Sewcial Quilters of Clark County.

About four years ago, the Sewcial Quilters of Clark County decided to start making quilts for QOV.

“We started with just doing charity quilts for foster kids, people who lost their homes, and it was brought up about the Quilts of Valor. We felt this was a need, because there were no groups in our area, and these veterans were getting left out,” Becky said.

Service members and veterans are awarded these quilts by the QOV to thank them for serving their country.

The QOV has also been extended to any service member who has an honorable discharge.

“This is because not all of them have served during war time, but they all have put their lives on hold to protect our country,” Becky said.

According to Becky, the quilting group has awarded around 50 quilts to veterans or service members in the area.

“The group has basically done Clark County, I myself have done Lee, Knox, and Lewis County. If a request comes in, we are the closest group, so we take care of that,” Becky said.

“We try to give them quilts and it just lets them know that they are not forgotten.”

The Sewcial Quilters of Clark County have awarded quilts on Flag Day in the past and they have awarded quilts at the Veteran’s Day celebration at the high school.

“We also do private ones in homes. I’ve done several in people’s homes, because they

didn’t want it in public.”

One of the requirements of QOV is that a quilt may not be awarded as a surprise.

“We have run into people who have severe PTSD, and they may not want one and if it is a surprise it could cause problems,” Becky explained.

To provide more information this year about the quilts, the quilting group will be set up at the Clark County Fair.

“We will have information and quilts on display. We will probably have a donation jar out because everything we do is out of our own pocket or from donations,” Becky said.

The group will be there to answer any questions or to help people who want to nominate a service member to receive a quilt.

“On the Quilts of Valor website, it is very easy to go and nominate somebody,” Becky said.

If someone would like to volunteer their time or help make a quilt, they can join the Sewcial Quilters of Clark County group.

The group meets twice a month at the Amazing Grace Bible Church outside of Kahoka. They meet on the second Thursdays of the month from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the fourth Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

“These men and women have basically put their life on hold to do a job and to protect our freedoms. They put themselves in harm’s way going to war,” Becky said.

“Many of them gave up their lives and we just want to honor those that did come home and to know that we think of them.”

If anyone needs help to nominate a veteran or service member, they can contact Becky Rodgers, Pam Oilar, or LaTisha Scott- Snead. You can contact Becky Rodgers at (319) 795-6950 for more information or check out the Quilts of Valor website qovf.org.