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Four veterans receive Quilts of Valor in Fairfield
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Three residents and one worker at Addington Place of Fairfield were honored with Quilts of Valor during a ceremony on Sunday, Jan. 5.
The hand-made quilts recognize the service of military veterans. Sunday’s ceremony was organized by Catherine and David Steele, who founded a local chapter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation called “Thank You For Your Service – Quilters of Iowa.” Catherine said the national organization began in 2003, and the local chapter began seven years ago with the couple’s friends from Bladensburg Christian Church northwest of Batavia. That included Larry and Diana Smith, Carole Black, and Becky Peters, a resident of Addington Place.
Peters did some digging to find out who among the residents and workers at Addington Place had served in the armed forces, and helped arrange the ceremony to honor them. During the presentation of the quilts, Catherine said more than 350,000 quilts had been made for veterans, but there were still millions more veterans yet to receive one.
Catherine said that each part of the quilt means something, that each stitch represents the love, gratitude and tears shed for the recipient. She said she hopes the quilts bring warmth and healing to all those who receive them.
“This quilt should never be bought, and it should never be sold,” she said. “It’s a tangible thing a person can wrap around themself and know someone loves them.”
The four people honored Sunday were:
- Allen W. Reynolds, who served in the Army from 1953-1955 including in Berne, Germany.
- Raymond Goehring, who served in the Army from 1954-1956, also in Germany.
- Michael K. Carlson, who served in the National Guard in the 1960s.
- Taylor McLeland, who served in the Air Force from 2013-2019, including in Guam, Hawaii and Missouri.
McLeland is Addington Place’s maintenance coordinator. He was unable to attend the ceremony to receive the quilt in person, but he said the honor was very special.
Catherine, who lives south of Eldon, said her chapter now has 10 members and stretches across Southeast Iowa to as far away as Muscatine, and the group has awarded quilts to veterans all over including in Knoxville and Altoona. She said the four quilts handed out Sunday marked the 49 th the club has done in the last 12 months.
“We go where we’re called to go. We never say no,” Catherine said.
Catherine and David might have been two unlikely founders of a quilting club since neither of them had ever sewn before. Catherine said she started by watching how-to videos on YouTube. She and David divided the work so that Catherine sewed while David’s job was measuring and cutting the fabric.
“I didn’t have the patience for that,” Catherine joked.
In 2020, David broke several bones after falling off a roof and having to be life-flighted to Iowa City. He’s recovered since then, but Catherine has taken on all the quilting tasks, with one exception. To finish the quilt, Catherine needs the aid of a longarm sewing machine, and she’s fortunate to have three friends with in the area who have a machine.
Quilting has become Catherine’s favorite hobby, something she can do while watching television.
“I love the creativity, and it’s been very rewarding and calming for me,” she said.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
