Operation Kid Comfort Quilts

 

Island Quilters has chosen Operation Kid Comfort Quilts as one of their Community Service Projects for the 2015/16 Season.

 

OKC = OPERATION KID COMFORT= HAPPY KIDS

 

From our Community Service Chairman Sandra - 

I fell in love with this service project while in the Birmingham Quilters Guild a few years back and am so excited to have the opportunity to share this great project with all of you in the Island Quilters Guild!!!  It was discovered that the children of deployed servicemen and women were often lost, confused, had no time reference for when their parent was coming home and were filled with anxiety and loneliness.

 

Someone came up with the idea of making pictures of the deployed parent or parents in some cases and putting them into a quilt for ages up to 8 yrs old and into pillows/pillowcases for the older kids.  The children light up when they get the quilts and see the pictures of their parent on it!!  I have received some of the sweetest pictures and thank you notes from the mothers or grandparents who are caring for these little ones and it is the most gratifying service project I’ve ever been involved with!! 

 

This is going to be such fun and I think all of you will enjoy seeing the pictures of all the children and their happy faces!!  I look forward to working with all of you on this project and hope we can do it for as long as there are servicemen and women away from their familes!!  Thanks so much for your enthusiasm!!

 

"Volunteers at the Armed Services YMCA create custom-made photo transfer quilts and pillows. Each child receives a quilt or pillow; children 7 and under receive a quilt, 8 and older receive a pillow. Operation Kid Comfort quilts and pillows are for the children of our deployed active duty U.S. military service men and women. The quilts and pillows are personally handcrafted to help children cope with the emotional stress during a parent’s deployment."   http://www.asymca.org/programs/operation-kid-comfort/

 

Operation Kid Comfort on FaceBook:  https://www.facebook.com/ASYMCAOKC

 

Images for Kid Comfort Quilts:  https://www.google.com/search?q=operation+kid+comfort+quilts&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zls8VZe4IImfgwTmoIHwCA&ved=0CD8Q7Ak&biw=1602&bih=965