After last week’s heartbreaking news of the loss of two legendary figures in our community, I am delighted to bring you the story of Christmas quilts of comfort this morning. When I started thinking about writing my opinion piece this week, so many ideas, thoughts and writing prompts flooded my head.

Last week was by far, one of my more difficult weeks, sharing news with you all. I love to bring you the stories that melt your hearts, make you ask questions or just share important information. I was not prepared for writing about the loss of such a great human. I wasn’t ever a basketball star…my kids picked up wrestling…long story short, I did not have the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hurst. But through the community I watch mourn his untimely death, I learned so much about him and the impact he will leave on the sports community. Mr. B. was my woods teacher in 7th grade…and someone I grew to enjoy but our paths seldomly crossed. Our community lost two of the kindest people who loved their athletes, students, co-workers and families with undeniable devotion, which will forever leave a void for many. 

I had heard about ‘The crazy mom idea,’ to mass produce nearly 200 quilts earlier this year. I have patiently been waiting for the green flag to run the story to keep the mission a surprise for the families of the 920th. When I received a call from Michelle Winget telling me her project was near completion, I knew that was just the story we all needed for Christmas morning. What a heartwarming idea. 

To further explain the processes, I felt sharing a little more information outside of the article itself would be helpful and perhaps warm your hearts this Christmas Day. 

I come from a family of seamstresses, quilters, knitters, crocheters…talented! Now, me, I can get a button to stay on, but I really wouldn’t count on it and there is a huge chance I will probably poke myself a few times just trying to fix my trousers…But that crafty stuff…whoa. That is some real talent. 

Quilts are put together in chunks. I am sure most of you have seen “patch work” well, each of those patches are stitched together but it so much more complicated than that. Each patch is pinned together as the fabric is pieced together. I have learned some quilts have pretty fancy patterns where the fabric patches are formed into intricate designs and some of them are strips like a “jelly roll.” Some of the stitching is even quite fancy. The top portion of the quilt is made and then basted together, like a sandwich, with batting and a backing fabric. The layers are then quilted together and binding is attached to the edges of the quilt. 

Point being, the hours that were donated just to make these quilts are unable to be explained. 

The amount of love poured into these quilts will never carry a number or measurement. 

Donations came in from the Goshen County Quilters Guild, banks, community people who just wanted to give. Just to give. Donations came from states away just to make somebody else’s day a bit brighter. When a solider is deployed, a community is left to comfort the families of our soldiers because that soldier has enough to worry about. He/She should not have to worry about the community providing support to their families…the solider should be able to rest when he/she can know that we, as a community, have their back. After all, they have ours. 

A special thank you to Michelle, Ruth Van Mark, Brenda Allen, Jeanne Stratton and Terry Keiser for restoring my faith in all things good this week and thank you to the countless volunteers and donors who helped in the efforts. 

We are so blessed to live in a community where things like this are possible. 

Which leads me to another topic of discussion…Working here, I am pretty fortunate to have the opportunity to interact with some of the neatest folks. I spend a lot of time working with organization in the community to help prompt humanitarian efforts. 

I am becoming increasingly concerned about where they are going…Some of our clubs and organizations are shrinking. Which means their efforts in our community also shrink.  

As our lives get busier, the amount of time we have is consumed by trying to make a living and living which makes it more difficult for us to join these types of things. 

This holiday season, I hope we all take some time to learn about the varies community clubs and organizations and consider joining one. 

Merry Christmas, Goshen County. Here’s to a bright New Year.