Church continues tradition of donating quilts, more, to people in need

First Lutheran Church in Havre is again collecting handmade quilts and personal kits this holiday season to be sent across the world for people in need through the Lutheran World Relief organization.

"We can't even understand what their poverty is, so this is something that we can do and hopefully do it with dignity," First Lutheran Church volunteer Karen Nave said. "... We are not helping 'these poor people' we are helping people with dignity."

First Lutheran Church has been making quilts and creating kits for a number of years, volunteer Sue Ost said. She added that she and Nave have been doing it for 35 years and the program was going on before they got involved.

Most of the quilts and kits are sent to places across the globe for people in need, either people who are in refugee camps or people who are in impoverished areas, she said. She said that the quilts and kits are going out to people they will never meet or see, but the important part of the program is to help people.

"There is so much poverty in the world, and we have so much, we don't even realize," she said, adding that this is a way to give back.

Ost said that the quilts are made by a number of volunteers, some of whom do it at home and others get together at the church on the weekends.

"It's just so much fun, and it's a good way to get together with other people who enjoy sewing and doing this kind of thing," she said.

Volunteers start making the quilts throughout the entire year, starting immediately after the previous year's quilts and kits are picked up, she said. She added that they meet twice a month on Saturdays at the church to sew. Once a year all the quilts are collected at the church and are displayed and blessed before they are sent out.

Saturday after Thanksgiving, a volunteer truck driver travels all over the region picking up donated quilts and kits from churches in the area, she said. The quilts and kits are then taken to Minneapolis where they are shipped off.

The quilts and kits are all handmade from donated fabrics and the kits are made up of donated items. The church makes up a variety of kits, including hygiene, school supplies, baby and sewing kits. The kits are for all ages.

Ost said that the hygiene kits are important because some people who are living in refugee camps do not have some basic items such as soap or nail clippers. The school kits are important because some children, if they don't have any supplies, are not able to attend school. The baby kits include basic things for infants, parents may need to take care of their children, and the sewing kits are to help people learn to sew and develop a usable skill. She added that the quilts are displayed at the church so people can see them and encourage them to donate. 

This year, First Lutheran so far has collected 185 quilts, 12 hygiene kits, 67 school kits, 76 baby kits and 13 sewing kits.

Ost said she is always amazed every year how many items are donated every year.

Nave added that a number of quilts and items every year are also donated anonymously. She said that she often gets to the church and finds quilts or supplies, such as soap, left at the office with no name or information.

Ost said that the program is a year-long program and people can leave donations at the church or go to Lutheran World Relief's website at http://lwr.org and donate directly. She added that the fabrics they are looking for are cotton and many organizations and businesses around town, such as Ben Franklin's Crafts donate the stores unused or scrap fabrics.

Nave added that every year they get a number of beautiful quilts, some being made from the oddest materials. She said the quilts are not for sale and if people want to donate money they can donate directly to the Lutheran World Relief organization. She added that the quilts are not for sale because people really need them.

"They deserve the beautiful ones too," she said.

She said that she saw a video released by the Lutheran World Relief organization in which a man in a foreign country who received a quilt, asked, "Why would anyone who doesn't even know me give me something so beautiful?"

The quilts and the kits mean a lot to the people who receive them, she said. The quilts are for whatever people need, if a person uses it as a carpet or as a saddle, that was what they needed it for, she said.

"It's not ours to judge," she said.

The church also is holding its annual bazaar this weekend, Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.