Last Friday, I met Sherry from Haw River at our local quilt shop, Beginnings, to receive a fabulous shipment of quilts. She brought 12 queen, 6 twin / full and 14 throw/comfort quilts in both adult and children’s themes. Since I knew well in advance that she was coming and what she was bringing, I was able to coordinate with Diane at Steps to Hope to pick up quilts for the shelter. We all met together, dodging the raindrops, and marveled at what Sherry and Morris brought!

We proceeded to unload Sherry’s car into both Diane’s and mine. I had some quilts already in my car from postal shipments received in previous weeks. I planned to deliver those with Sherry’s. The larger quilts went into my car. Here it is all ready to go, with me on the left. Sherry and Morris are on the right. Some of these will go to Gerton, and I’ll hand them off to Michael as soon as we can arrange a time.

Sherry wrote this about her group of talented quilters and their purpose – “In 2000, one woman at Phillips Chapel in Haw River NC, knew how to piece and quilt. Betty McVey got more women interested and taught them all how to quilt. Pretty soon two things happened: they named themselves the Slap Happy Quilters and they recognized a mission. For twenty five years these 16-18 women have covered adult cancer patients in Alamance County. Approximately 300 quilts each year are placed in the hands of the Alamance Regional Cancer Center chemo educator, and given to patients reeling from a recent cancer diagnosis. In October, some members of the group pivoted to making and sending quilts to folks affected by Hurricane Helene in western NC. Some people sewed and quilted, some prayed, others gave money. And to the Glory of God this delivery makes 77 quilts [total delivered over two shipments].”

We loaded the rest of the quilts into Diane’s car. She was taking these to the Steps to Hope shelter residents in Columbus, NC. The children’s prints went with her for the kids at the shelter. Her facility for domestic violence victims has residents who’ve been dealing with the floods as well as wildfires while fleeing an abusive situation. I cannot imagine the heartache and stress those women have had to bear.

After some chatting, and hugs all around, we all left for our respective destinations. I went directly to the main fire station in Hendersonville where I had previously made an appointment to deliver quilts. This station is newly built, having taken over the city block, tearing down the old station, moving a mini golf course, and building a bigger and better station on the land. It had only been open for a couple of weeks when Helene hit. I wanted to give these hard working firefighters a quilt for each bed in the station.

The guys were pretty excited to be remembered and thanked for their hard work during those weeks, helping the community and keeping us safe, while they were dealing with damage to their own homes. Captain Thomas Kleppe (second from the left in the photo below) grabbed a few guys to help unload the car. Engineer Dakota Newman is on the left, and on the right are Firefighter Samuel Burchfield, Firefighter Thomas Capps.

As we carried them inside, more firefighters joined the fun in unpacking the quilts and putting them on beds. There was some good natured kidding around as they decided which quilt was going on which bed. Each room has two beds. The larger quilts have a nice drop on the twin size bed, plenty wide enough to cover big guys. I mentioned that spring might not be the ideal time to deliver a quilt, but was told that the station air conditioning is put on “hang meat setting.” They like cold rooms with warm quilts all year long. This quilt came by mail from Suzanne in Alaska.

The guys decided to put one with a bear print on the chief’s bed. There was some talk about sneaking around and swapping it for one on their beds. I think this would be hilarious if it became a regular game of ‘who has the bear quilt’, LOL! In the photo below from left, Engineer Patrick Corn, Captain Thomas Kleppe, Senior Firefighter Brackley Kicklighter, and Lieutenant Dillon Baker. Every one seemed to be really happy with the quilts, and mentioned that the team not on call that day would appreciate them as well.

The officers have rooms of their own. Captain Kleppe seemed to be very happy with his quilt. I think he chose this one for the colors, which seemed to be close to the colors in the firefighter logo blankets on the beds.

I am expecting two shipments next week, and will see how far we can go in serving the first responders with those quilts. There are four beds at the other fire station in Hendersonville, which will be next in line. Then, I’d like to put one on every bed at the two Mountain Home fire stations. If I have more full / queen size quilts, I’ll look to Flat Rock, Edneyville and Etowah in our county for more first responder stations.

Once again, here is the link to my Hurricane Quilts page FAQs. I have updated the information over the weekend. Click on that link for my shipping address, answers to questions on what we can use, and more. I thought I would do this through 2025, but I think it will now end in this summer. I feel like by that time we will probably have served all we can. Between our efforts and my local quilt guild receiving quilts from all over the country, we have pretty well covered Lake Lure, Bat Cave and Gerton serving not only people whose homes were severely damaged, but first responders in those communities. We have literally delivered hundreds into those communities, and also ones farther north as well as our own town.

It has been so heartwarming to see our quilting community come together from near and far to support those who have dealt with so much. I know each and every recipient of a quilt appreciates your thoughtfulness. For everyone who has assisted with this project in making and shipping quilts along with those donating money and time for delivering quilts, thank you!