Wrap-A-Smile travels to Florida
Lest you think I was just lounging on white sand beaches and enjoying Florida's golden rays, let me reassure you that I was talking up Wrap-A-Smile everywhere we went these past 2 weeks. Friends, relatives, fabric stores, markets, quilters and Rotarians all heard about what we do. By planting seeds of interest we have hopefully opened doors to new quilters who will continue to keep this project viable. Annually we share nearly 1500 quilts to the medical mission teams so it is a constant river of quilts flowing in and flowing out. We have to keep that river flowing!
Two highlights of our trip were meeting Sunshine Guild member and longtime WAS supporter Kathy T in Tampa, followed by a stop at The Villages of central Florida. If you haven't heard of The Villages, it is a 55+ planned community with over 100,000 residents in multiple neighborhoods. There is non-stop activity including 21 (!) chapters of a quilting guild, and 4 separate Rotary clubs. Rotarian friends Bob and Cheryl from Ogunquit, Maine, spend their winters there and generously introduced us to both quilters and Rotarians. I was given opportunities to speak and happily left a lot of brochures as well as some of our new starter kits.
Our homecoming to the chillier temps of Maine was warmed by the boxes of quilts delivered while I was away. Many thanks to Sunshine members Kathleen, Karen and Louise who continue to wrap our little patients in their gifts of love. New to our network is Marcia from Indiana who generously donated 9 very fun scrappy quilts. I never tire of scrappy quilts and always see even more detail when I photograph them.
Two highlights of our trip were meeting Sunshine Guild member and longtime WAS supporter Kathy T in Tampa, followed by a stop at The Villages of central Florida. If you haven't heard of The Villages, it is a 55+ planned community with over 100,000 residents in multiple neighborhoods. There is non-stop activity including 21 (!) chapters of a quilting guild, and 4 separate Rotary clubs. Rotarian friends Bob and Cheryl from Ogunquit, Maine, spend their winters there and generously introduced us to both quilters and Rotarians. I was given opportunities to speak and happily left a lot of brochures as well as some of our new starter kits.
Our homecoming to the chillier temps of Maine was warmed by the boxes of quilts delivered while I was away. Many thanks to Sunshine members Kathleen, Karen and Louise who continue to wrap our little patients in their gifts of love. New to our network is Marcia from Indiana who generously donated 9 very fun scrappy quilts. I never tire of scrappy quilts and always see even more detail when I photograph them.
Thank you to Marcia for contributing the eye candy in this post.
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| (And yes, those are postage stamp 16 patches...) |
Marcia's quilts are fabulous! It's wonderful that she has joined the WAS brigade. And I'm amazed at the number of quilters in The Villages!
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