by Lucie Roy
Quilts of Valour (QOV) Canada made five presentations on Friday night. The event was hosted by the Royal Canadian Legion Morinville Br. No. 176 with attendees from Bon Accord, Legal, Gibbons, Morinville and Edmonton.
Speakers and presenters at the event were Quilts of Valour (QOV)-Canada Alberta Parkland Area Representative Diana Cole, MLA Morinville-St. Albert Dale Nally and Legion President Hal Schneider.
Volunteers donate the materials and their time to make the quilts, which can span from 40 to 60 hours.
Cole said each quilt has a label on it with the person’s name and identification number. The number is unique to the quilt and person and once presented, the information is put into the computer and registered to that person.
The label on the quilt indicates who made the quilts and for the Friday night presentations most of the quilts were mostly from the Edmonton region; Leduc, Camrose, Stony Plain, Edmonton, Sherwood Park and New Sarepta.
The QOV official label reads “Handmade with love, respect and gratitude for your sacrifice to Canada. May the hugs stitched into this quilt give you comfort, strength and love.”
Cole makes public and one-on-one presentations of the quilts in the Edmonton area to North of Red Deer to Grande Prairie.
The five recipients included Bruce Wallace, a retired Air Force veteran who served 23 years, including Bosnia. Wallace currently volunteers at the Veterans Association Food Bank of Edmonton.
The second recipient was Ryan Wickens of Gibbons. (Capt.) Retired who served 21 years. He was with 1 Field Ambulance and did two tours in Afghanistan.
The third was Rita Quaghebeur of Legal. She served for 25 years in the Army and is one of seven in a family of eight that served in the Canadian military. She was a Vehicle Technician and then Dental Tech. Quaghebeur was transferred as far north as Yellowknife and south to San Diego. She said she did lots of trips from Edmonton to Suffield, and Edmonton to Wainwright.
Kip McKillop of Morinville was the fourth recipient. He is a retired Master Warrant Officer (MWO) who served for 39.5 years. McKillop was a Mobile Equipment Support Operator (MSE OP) and served with 3 CD Div. HQ did 3 tours in Bosnia, one in Afghanistan and one in Kosovo.
The last presentation was made to Lawrence Thom, who served for 51 in the Legion and in the military from 1954 to 1958 at the Hangar which is now the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton.
Members of the family and Legion are planning a trip down memory lane to the Museum on July 18 with Lawrence Thom.
There were eleven quilt recipients who were unable to attend therefore a second QOV- Canada presentation is scheduled to be hosted by the Morinville Legion in August.
For those wishing to nominate someone and have them added to the list – you may contact Bev Lussier at the Morinville Legion or visit the Quilts of Valour- Canada website at www.quiltsofvalour.ca
Cole said the mission of QOV Canada is to ensure Canadian Armed Forces members are recognized for their service and Commitments to Canada and they provide their support through the presentation of the quilts to comfort past and present Armed Forces members.
There are currently over 19,000 quilts presented across Canada to date.
Quilts of Valour- Canada Representative -Parkland area Diana Cole writing Lawrence Thom name to the Quilt of Valour
QOV recipient Lawrence Thom, Dale Nally, MLA Morinville-St Albert and Hal Schneider President of the Morinville Legion.
QOV recipient Rita Quaghebeur, Dale Nally MLA Morinville-St. Albert and Hal Schneider President of the Morinville Legion.
QOV Representative Diana Cole, recipient Kip McKillop, Dale Nally, MLA Morinville-St. Albert and Hal Schneider, Morinville President.
QOV representative Diana Cole, recipient Ryan Wickens Dale Nally, MLA Morinville-St. Albert and Hal Schneider, Morinville Legion President.
QOV representative Diana Cole, recipient Bruce Wallace, MLA Morinville-St. Albert Dale Nally and Legion President Hal Schneider.
Bless the quilters & the deserving recipients …..love my country Canada!