Oregon Presentation

On February 10, we presented quilts to 17 members of the 270th ATCS of the Oregon Air National Guard at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, Oregon, who had been previously deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Qatar.

 The recipients posed for a group picture afterwards: 16 men and one woman.

You may ask why did we give that young man the black and white floral quilt? Why didn't we give it to the young woman who is holding the green and brown pieced quilt?

 Well, because they chose the quilts themselves! We laid all 39 quilts out on tables so they could see each one and gave them time to make a selection.

The lesson here was that our stereotypes can be highly misguided and when we have the opportunity, we should allow the recipients to tell us what they like.

Our presentation was a huge success, in the words of the logistics coordinator, shown with the quilt makers, "That was absolutely fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am honored that your organization takes so much pride in the United States Military personnel!!!"

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Cindy Roche
SW OR Regional Coordinator (Medford)
Quilts of Valor Foundation