Photo By Maj. Jason Sweeney | Dyna Hall, left, and Cathy Dolan pose for a photo on Feb. 16. 2020 at Buena Park,...... read more read more
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CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – When Dyna Hall met Cathy Dolan, she learned about Dolan’s son who served two tours in Iraq during the height of the Iraq War. Twelve of her son’s buddies were killed in action. To make matters worse, when her son came home, some of his buddies had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and had committed suicide.
“We felt we needed to do something,” Hall said. “We just started making quilts. We’re quilters. That’s what we do.”
In 2008, Hall and Dolan founded a non-profit organization called Operation: Blocks for the Brave, which gifts quilts to U.S. military members who have served in a war zone.
“We make quilts to give people comfort,” Hall said. “It shows that we support them.”
Blocks for the Brave is an all-volunteer, donation-based organization with federal and state recognition as a non-profit charity. Its mission is to give handmade quilts to United States Armed Services members who have deployed to war zones and have sustained physical and/or emotional injuries. “We hope that our quilts assure these brave men and women that their sacrifices have been neither ignored nor forgotten. They are the reason America is free, and we could not be more proud of them,” the organization’s mission statement says.
About 30 women in Bakersfield and Buena Park work with Hall and Dolan to make the patriotically-themed quilts. Each quilt is red, white and blue, sometimes with some gold thrown in. Blocks for the Brave donates the quilts to U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals, the California Veterans Assistance Foundation, which works with homeless veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and other organizations for military veterans. Dolan’s husband, Jim, a Vietnam War veteran, helps with presenting the quilts.
California Army National Guard Soldier Staff Sgt. Jerry Polk has deployed to Iraq four times and Afghanistan twice. Last year, while working with Hall’s husband at Camp Roberts, Polk was gifted a quilt from Blocks for the Brave.
“I was overwhelmed,” Polk said. “I did not expect that at all. It was just an honor.”
Polk said he keeps his quilt in a place of honor in his man cave in his home in San Diego.
“She does this from the heart,” Polk said. “I'm proud to have received one.”
Hall’s husband, Master Sgt. (ret.) Ernest Hall retired from the California Army National Guard in 2019 after a long military career. He said he is proud of what his wife does for veterans.
“It’s awesome what she does,” he said. “People recognize the quality of her work. Since she got into it in 2008, it surprised me the amount of quilts they put out to veterans. They put their heart and love and care into those quilts.”
Dyna Hall said that if someone meets the criteria, Blocks for the Brave would be happy to gift them a quilt.
To learn more about Operation: Blocks for the Brave, visit www.facebook.com/blocksforthebrave.
| Date Taken: | 02.11.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2020 14:37 |
| Story ID: | 362601 |
| Location: | CAMP ROBERTS, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 132 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Handmade quilts are a gift from the heart to war vets, by MAJ Jason Sweeney, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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