Many Many Quilts for the Kiddos

In 2003 I started making a quilt for the family I would adopt for Christmas.  The program to adopt-a-family was through my college, Portland Community College.  It was our Cascade campus who first started this tradition of having staff and faculty adopt a family selected from the student population.  So Doug and I decided to adopt a family and shower them with the best Christmas they could think of having.  It always involved the addition of a quilt.

Sometimes I would make a quilt for each of the kids in the family, sometimes a quilt for the mother.  One year I made a quilt for the mom and the gramma.  And then the fun slowed down when Doug had lost his job.  We couldn't afford to adopt a family that year, so I made a few quilts to give to kids who didn't receive as much that year.  

After a couple of years of making a few quilts, I told my quilting forum about this idea and some of the quilters wanted to be part of this tradition.  That year I received about 15 quilts from others from across the nation and Canada

Adopt-a-Family quilts 2012

This wonderful tradition has continued for many years.  That first year I simply brought the quilts to the student body office and the students distributed them, with only some of the younger kids receiving a quilt.  The next year I bundled up the quilts per family, labeled the family each bundle was for and which child received what quilt.  That year all the little kids up to age 14 received a quilt and a pillowcase.  Some received knitted hats.  Each year the number of quilts provided rose until we were giving a quilt to every child in a qualifying family through age 19.  Last year we gave away over 60 quilts to the program.

This year was more difficult and I wasn't sure if we could make it so that each child could receive a quilt.  See, we lost two of our quilters.  But now the rest of us had a goal: to honor those two by making as many quilts as we could.  We realized we might not have enough quilts for every child, so we focused on making sure the little ones had a quilt.

Quilts waiting to be sorted

To my  great surprise, I received enough quilts from all over the United States that, added to my own contributions, provided quilts for every child 18 years of age and under.  And each child received a pillowcase as well!   But wait!  There's more!  There were 20 quilts left over. 

Here's the stats: 

• 47 children ages 18 and under
• One mother who asked for nothing--I gave her a quilt
• 20 leftover quilts!  They were given to the Bradley Angle House.  This is an agency that provides women and children of domestic abuse with a safe place.

 All this is thanks to our wonderful caring quilters Valerie Bradley, Peggy Tripler, Sharon Gratz, Gayle Nunn, Cathy Berg, and one quilter who wished to remain anonymous.


It was a glorious Thanksgiving!
peace~~~