The last weekend of May, Quilts of Valor presented 18 veterans with handmade quilts in a ceremony at LedgeRock Church in Ely.
Michelle Sherwood opened the ceremony with a few words about the Quilts of Valor program: “I learned about the Quilts of Valor program back in 2006, and I took it back to my quilter groups… the quilters loved the idea, we’ve been making Quilts of Valor ever since. We were sending them overseas, we were sending them to the Afghanistan hospital, we were sending them to Walter Reed, we were sending them all across the country, and then we realized that we had a whole lotta veterans in our area, so we decided we were gonna keep it closer to home, and honor those that protected us.”
Quilts were presented to 18 Ely area veterans. Pictured (back l-r): John LeKatz (USA), Lawrence Buchite (USN), Robert Olson (USA), John Klobuchar (USAF), Lawrence Polyner (USA), Alan Thoren (USAF), Sheldon Fenske (USA), Robert Horvat (USN), David Olson (USN), Michael D. Forsman (USMC), Francis Fitzgerald (USMC); Front: Roger Laine (USMC), Leonard Groom (USA), John Karasti (USN), Gregory Seraphine (USA), Noelle Skubal (USAF), David Nichols (USN), David Franks (USN).
The Quilts of Valor Foundation was founded in 2003 by Catherine Roberts after a particularly vivid dream.
“According to Catherine: The dream was as vivid as real life. I saw a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over. The permeating feeling was one of utter despair. I could see his war demons clustered around, dragging him down into an emotional gutter. 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 quilt had made this dramatic change. The message of my dream was: Quilts = Healing.”
As of April 2026, 444,683 quilts have been awarded to veterans nationwide.
If interested in joining a quilting group, please reach out to the Heart of the Woods Quilters Facebook Group.
