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Friends of JB MDL quilt for wounded warriors

  • Published
  • By Bill Addison
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  Approximately 15 members, spouses, family members and friends of the 87th Medical Group recently combined their love of quilting with a chance to help a wounded warrior.

The quilters met over the course of several months to create a Quilt of Valor, which was presented to a wounded service member by deployed members of the 87th MDG serving in Afghanistan in February.

The project began last year when two employees, Robbin Hobbins and Mary Nell Kirkner, bonded over their shared experiences and love of quilting.

Both worked with wounded warriors in 2005 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Hobbins, spouse of then U.S. Armed Forces Europe commander Gen. William T. Hobbins, volunteered at the medical facility, while Kirkner served as a registered nurse.

The two hadn't met until April of last year when Kirkner, spouse of 87th MDG Chief Nurse Lt. Col. Vince Kirkner, began working at the medical clinic here as a utilization nurse. Hobbins, who currently serves as the Recover Care coordinator for the clinic, said they both remembered seeing quilts from the Quilt of Valor program coming into the clinic at Landstuhl, and decided they wanted to work on a quilt together.

"Quilts of Valor are stitched with love, prayers and healing thoughts. Combat troops who have been wounded or touched by war are awarded this tangible token of appreciation that unequivocally says, 'thank you for your service, sacrifice and valor,'" according to the Quilt of Valor Foundation's website.

The foundation was established in 2003 by Catherine Roberts from her sewing room in Seaford, Del. and has since grown to a national grassroots community service effort which has awarded more than 37,000 quilts to service members.

Hobbins and Kirkner then approached Valarie Burks, spouse of Col. James Burks, 87th MDG commander, to reach out for volunteers among the spouses.

"We had about 15 people work on the quilt - active-duty Air Force and Army, wives, sons and daughters and civilian employees at the Med Group," said Kirkner. "Many had never sewn before, but they came and helped layout the blocks and press them after they were sewn."

Everyone who volunteered to help was given the opportunity to help sew a part of the block, including Col. Burks, who sewed the first block.

The quilters met monthly for approximately two and a half hours at a time beginning in October and had the quilt top completed by January. From there, they worked with a local business to have it professionally quilted making it was to ship by February.

The quilt was then mailed to Maj. Melinda Williamson and Capt. Danyell Lambert, both of the 87th MDG, who are currently deployed to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan.

Williamson and Lambert then presented the quilt to a wounded service member at the Craig Joint Theater Hospital.

"We were fortunate because we could send the quilt to a forward-operating base and one of our nurses could present it from our medical clinic, from our wing, from our quilt group to a patient she personally had contact with," said Hobbins.

But since the completion of the 87th MDG Quilt of Valor, Kirkner said a number of people have been bitten by the quilting bug, and the group continues to meet once a month to quilt.

"I think if you ask anyone who helped out they would all say how much fun we had making the quilt," said Kirkner. "It was easier than we thought and we would do it again,"

The group also plans to continue quilting for the benefit of others as well.

"Amongst our group of quilters, we have a number of breast cancer survivors, and we're thinking our next quilt might be made to benefit a breast cancer survivor," said Hobbins.