11 military veterans receive Quilts of Valor | Local News
Eleven military veterans, including the eight pictured here, received free quilts on Sunday that were made at The Quilters Cottage by the nonprofit volunteer group Quilts of Valor.
KEARNEY – Quilts of Valor presented quilts to 11 military veterans in ceremonies outside The Quilter’s Cottage at Hilltop Mall last Sunday.
The volunteer group presented 200 quilts over their five years to military veterans, whether they served in conflict or not.
“The beneficiaries must still be alive, and that cannot be a surprise,†said Anna Wills de Kearney, coordinator of QOV. “This project means a lot to me. Many veterans have never been welcomed into their homes or recognized.
Among those honored on Sunday was US Navy WT2 veteran Vernon E. Erikson, who served in World War II. “It was so touching to give this to her,” said Wills, who was a nurse in the US Navy.
Vernon E. Erikson, a WWII US Navy veteran, received a Quilts of Valor quilt on Sunday.
Anna Wills, courtesy
She is assisted by Deb Brunger.
Quilts are made on a “long arm quilt,” a large machine that places the quilt on a large frame so that it can be quilted on a machine rather than by hand. “It makes it last a lot longer,†she said.
Quilts of Valor was started by the mother of an Iraqi veteran who imagined a soldier being comforted while wrapped in a quilt. QOV has now donated 100,000 quilts across the country.
There are two chapters in the Kearney area.
“Nobody gets paid to make them, and if we did, you can’t sell it,†Wills said.