Quilts of Valor volunteers provide comfort, healing to veterans
One night in 2003, a woman named Catherine Roberts, whose son was serving with the Army in Iraq, had a prophetic dream. She would write that she saw “a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over. I could see his war demons clustered around. Then, as if viewing a movie, I saw him in the next scene wrapped in a quilt. His whole demeanor changed from one of despair to one of hope and well-being. The message of my dream was 'Quilts = Healing.'”
Roberts went on to start a nationwide organization called the Quilts of Valor Foundation. And as part of that, 17 Elgin-area quilters gather once a month at an Elgin church to sew red, white and blue quilts and present them to former armed services members.
Five years ago, the leaders of today's Elgin Quilts of Valor group, Patty Harrer of Elgin and Shirley Pflederer of rural St. Charles, were longtime hobby quilters who both attended Lutheran churches in Elgin — Harrer at Christ the Lord Lutheran and Pflederer at Bethlehem Lutheran. The two met in 2013 when Pflederer organized a “Saturday Sew In” that drew 75 quilters from all five Evangelical Lutheran Church of America congregations in the Elgin area.
“That summer the Gail Borden Library was having a special commemoration of the Vietnam War with the traveling wall and the book 'The Things We Carried,'” Pflederer recalled. “At the final wrap-up to the project at the library we presented 19 Vietnam veterans with quilts that the 75 ladies had made.”
The next year, Harrer and Pflederer heard about the Quilts of Valor group and decided to start a local branch. That included some women who already quilted once a week with a Christ the Lord group called Needles & Pins, plus quilters from other churches and some who belong to no church.
In 2016 the group made 78 quilts; last year 51. In 2016 they gave quilts to all 22 veterans who attend Christ the Lord Lutheran. Every November and May they give a quilt to each veteran who graduates from Elgin Community College, where Quilts of Valor member Carol Earsley works in the ECC library. Other quilts go to veterans who return to Naval Station Great Lakes from Afghanistan or Iraq, and to individuals from the area who request a quilt or are nominated by friends.
One recent honoree — and one of the oldest — was 94-year-old World War II Army Sgt. Melvin Copeland of Elgin. During training, his buddy was critically injured. But doctors in that racially segregated era refused to let him donate blood for a transfusion because Copeland is African-American and the buddy was white.
“But we don't get many World War II vets anymore,” Harrer said. Many of the recent honorees served in the Vietnam era. Harrer said honoring them is especially satisfying because when they returned one at a time to a politically divided nation, they were often spat upon and called “baby killers” instead of having their sacrifices recognized.
“Our neighbor was in ROTC at the University of Wisconsin, and one day while he was walking down the street in uniform, a car went up over the curb and tried to hit him,” Pflederer said.
“When we give them a quilt, some guys who never said a word about the Vietnam War suddenly are talking,” Harrer said. “One guy said he wants to be buried in his quilt. One World War II vet, with tears in his eyes, said this was the best thing anybody's ever done for him.”
“One veteran of Afghanistan said that 'no one wanted to talk to me when I got back,'” said Jacki Bakker of Carpentersville.
Quilt recipient Bob Reimer, an 82-year-old Elginite who served during the 1950s, stopped by at the group's October meeting to give the sewers some “monkey bread” as they ate brown-bag lunches.
“My cousin, who was in World War II, and I got quilts at the same time,” Reimer said. “That meant a lot to me,” he said, as did a four-day bus trip to the Air Force Museum and Washington, D.C., memorials that he took thanks to a Belvidere group called Vets Roll.
Any present or former service member qualifies, even if they never were sent to a war front or served in peacetime.
“Everyone who serves puts their life on the line if their country needs them,” Pflederer noted.
Members said they enjoy the group not only because it feels good to recognize vets, but because it gives them a chance to socialize and to do an activity they enjoy. Besides, Beth Thomas of Elgin added, “Quilters know that they can only handle so many quilts in their own house.”
Quilts of Valor: How you can help
Join: The Elgin Quilts of Valor group meets from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at Christ the Lord Lutheran Church, 12N462 Tina Trail in Elgin. Harrer said that to join, anyone should just show up at one of the meetings, or call her at (224) 532-7338. There is also a group based in Fox Lake, according to the Quilts of Valor Foundation <a href="https://www.qovf.org/whos-in-my-area/">website</a>.
Donate: Mail a check to Quilts of Valor Foundation, P.O. Box 191, Winterset, IA 50273; or visit the foundation's website for details on how to donate online or send fabric.
Know a veteran? To nominate someone to receive a quilt — including oneself — go online at the Quilts of Valor Foundation website.