About
Photo courtesy of Rotaplast International
Comfort quilts, created by quilters from all 50 states and several foreign countries, are gathered and then packaged to ship with medical missions.
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| Photo courtesy of Rotaplast |
Dr. Ann Demeranville currently manages the project from Asheville, NC, in Rotary District 7670. Wrap-A-Smile was started by Terry Hodskins of the Wells Maine Rotary Club and to date over 27,000 hand-made cotton quilts have been shared around the world. Colorful children's quilts have been given to babies and children undergoing cleft lip and cleft palate repair by Rotaplast volunteer surgeons. Secondarily these missions also often surgically correct the debilitating effects of burn scars, for adults as well as children.
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| Photo courtesy of Sunshine Online Quilt Guild |
Community collaboration helps make this project successful. Quilting guilds, sewing groups and generous individual quilters contribute all of the handmade quilts. Often a single quilt has been touched by many hands as different people contribute blocks, and others do the piecing, finishing and binding. Love is added at every step!
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| Photo courtesy of Rotaplast International |
If you would like to help with this international goodwill project, contact Ann at quilts7780@gmail.com
Good job, Ann!
ReplyDeleteHow can we find out if a local Rotary Club is involved. I live in a community south of Atlanta, Georgia. E-mail brendafurlong@bellsouth.net.
ReplyDeleteI live in Asheville,NC, where can I send quilts close to here?
ReplyDeleteI was a member of Wells Rotary(now living in Asheville) and helped Terry after she started Wrap-a-Smile.We packaged quilts to be sent to various Rotary clubs. Sadly, Terry is now deceased and I am no longer in Rotary. I hope this program still is functioning!!
DeleteTerry would be thrilled at the 27,000 number!!!
DeleteHello Anonymous, I was a member of Boothbay Harbor Rotary and am now living in Asheville (member of Asheville-South Rotary). Yes, WAS is still active! I manage the program from here with regional coordinators in NH and CA. And yes, I see Terry smiling every time we deliver quilts!! Write me if you would like to meet: quilts7780@gmail.com. ~Ann
ReplyDeleteSo you’re an insomniac as well! A transplant from Maine? I believe Terry was making-up at Boothbay when she learned about the cleft lip surgeries. The way I remember the story- the speaker mentioned the
Deletepatients were wrapped in paper blankets post-op. She thought that was dreadful/ thus Wrap-a-Smile was born.
Moral: you should never have challenged Terry!
Yes, that is the story I quote as well. Didn’t move to BBH or meet Terry until the program was well underway. I took over in 2018 when her health concerns increased.
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