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    Quilts with Love comforts Soldiers with a touch of home

    Quilts with Love comforts Soldiers with a touch of home

    Courtesy Photo | Spc. Raymond Vernon, a Sylacauga, Ala., resident, receives a quilt from Staff Sgt....... read more read more

    BAGHDAD, IRAQ

    12.25.2009

    Courtesy Story

    96th Sustainment Brigade

    CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq — When someone thinks of the desert, images are invoked of unbearable heat and an extremely dry climate where no one would volunteer to live. What is commonly overlooked, is how cold it becomes during the winter months or how a Soldier manages to handle the extreme temperature changes.

    The U.S. Army ensures Soldiers have the best equipment possible to handle any environment or situation. But an Extreme Cold Weather GENEX III Sleep System just does not have the feel of home, when deployed 6500 miles away, according to Capt. Scott Burnett, the battalion communications officer from Oklahoma City, Okla. This is the story of how, from a simple request, an organization was created to ensure that Soldiers deployed receive that little bit of comfort and touch from home.

    Maggie Jones, from Republic, Mo., and the mother of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Deron Jones, an Ogden, Kan. resident, and a maintenance technician with the 1st Maintenance Company, 260th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 96th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), received a call in September 2003 that changed her life completely.

    According to Jones, he was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and called his wife stating that he was cold and would like some blankets from home. She in turn called his mother Maggie, thinking a homemade quilt would do the trick. Maggie enlisted the help of several of her friends to help her. She put out a request on the internet for blocks to make a quilt. If she had more blocks, she would make more quilts and send them for other Soldiers. By December, Maggie and her friends had made 40 quilts for her son to hand out.

    "I was expecting just a fleece blanket," says Jones. "But my mom thought I should have something better." As word got out about the quilts, request from Families wanting their Soldier to have a quilt kept pouring in. Maggie and her friends agreed that they wanted to ensure that any Soldier serving could receive this touch of home and so they created Quilts with Love.

    Quilts with Love is the result of Maggie's simple desire to take care of her son and his Soldiers, and has now snowballed larger than she ever thought. Volunteers from around the country help by providing supplies to even creating a logo that goes on each blanket.

    "We are a small group of ladies, but do a lot of work. All the quilts are made and filled with our love and support for all the troops, whether they receive a quilt or not," says Maggie. "They are made to use to keep warm and know our love and support."

    "The phenomenal gesture boosts their morale," says Staff Sgt. Jose Castro from Junction City, Kan. Castro is a mechanic with the 260th CSSB and has assisted Jones to ensure that Soldiers receive the extra special gifts.

    Quilts with Love has sent quilts to Iraq and Afghanistan and will send them wherever a Soldier or their family requests. The quilts are free for service members; the only thing that the organization requests from them is a note "if they have the time," as Maggie says. They even send the Soldiers paper and envelopes with their quilt. "We send paper and addressed envelopes with the quilts to help make it easier for them if they choose to do so. There are letters we have received from grateful Soldiers, reminding us how very much they appreciate that 'hug of love' and support from a snuggly reminder of home."

    The organization set up internet user groups and a website and will accept donations ranging from monetary to supplies to a person's time, but never once asking a Soldier to pay for the quilts. To date, Quilts with love has distributed over 1600 quilts and their number keeps climbing. "The ladies do a great job," explains Jones. "It not only helps keep the Soldiers, warm but gives them a little piece of home." Maggie sums up why she and her friends keep doing what they do, "This project fills our hearts with much joy to know that this is a way we can help while you are over there keeping us safe here at home." A true reflection of their motto; "Keeping them warm, keeping us safe."

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 12.25.2009
    Date Posted: 12.25.2009 16:40
    Story ID: 43144
    Location: BAGHDAD, IQ

    Web Views: 740
    Downloads: 676

    PUBLIC DOMAIN