Quilts made for valor

The patriotic colors of red, white and blue are the special favorites of the members of the Sussex County quilters. The group meets on the third Wednesday of each month from 9:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Vernon PAL building to lovingly produce Quilts of Valor.

Quilt recipients can be active service personnel and veterans who certainly love and respect the red, white and blue.

According to group leader Carol Johnson, there are 30 quilters in the Sussex County Quilters. The average quilt size is 60 by 70.

“So far, 227 quilts have been made and awarded by our group since August 2011,” Johnson said proudly.

The quilters are proud to participate in the Quilts of Valor program along with their sister group, the Warwick Valley Quilters Guild. The Warwick division recently presented a completed quilt to Jack Rader, a navy veteran who was on the destroyer USS Bache from 1956 to 1959.

Quilts of Valor began in 2003 by founder Catherine Roberts as her son Nat was deployed to Iraq. Roberts believed that quilts equal healing and helping to silence the “demons of war”.

The first quilt was awarded in 2003 at Walter Reed Hospital to a young Minnesota serviceman who lost his leg in Iraq.

The Sussex County Quilters obtain their inspirational messages from visitors to the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show every summer as well as history classes at Sussex Vo-Tech High School.

Number wise, the whole Quilts of Valor organization has achieved some impressive numbers nationwide. Quilts awarded in 2019 so far, have been 19,657 while a total of 228,767 quilts have been awarded nationwide since the organization’s inception in 2003.

The Sussex County Quilters rely on donated materials for their patriotic quilts.