Quilts of Valor is a group that was started in 2003 to bring comfort and healing to Veterans through the gift of a homemade quilt. The founder, Catherine Roberts' began the group because of a dream.

"The dream was as vivid as real life. I saw a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over. The permeating feeling was one of utter despair. I could see his war demons clustered around, dragging him down into an emotional gutter. Then, as if viewing a movie, I saw him in the next scene wrapped in a quilt. His whole demeanor changed from one of despair to one of hope and well-being. The quilt had made this dramatic change. The message of my dream: Quilts = Healing."

In 2014 the group had awarded 100,000 Quilts of Valor to Service members and Veterans. By 2019 that number became over a quarter-million. For the twentieth anniversary next year, they are hoping to reach half a million awarded quilts.

Each quilt is handmade and each cost on average over three hundred dollars in material to create, not counting the time, labor and love. The Veteran also receives two handmade pillowcases to go with the quilt. Every veteran who is awarded a Quilt of Valor, has to be nominated. The application goes through the state to be approved, and the veteran must be honorably discharged and living to receive the award. Each quilt has an official Quilts of Valor label that tells who pieced it, who quilted it, and who did the binding on it.

For the first time in Roundup, Sharon McCleary, originally from Roundup, honored ten Roundup Veterans with these quilts in a special ceremony on Thursday November 10th after the Veterans lunch at the Senior Center. The ten quilts were given to Dan Barta, Louis Vidic, Duane Snook, Larry Ross, Jim Anderson, Robert Goffena, Ronnie Anderson, Brad Marking, Ron Carson, and Chuck Carson. When presenting the Quilts, she also spoke of the service of each Veteran, where they served and the awards of their service.

Sharon belongs to the group called The Montana Treasured Peacemakers, based out of Billings. She is the sponsor and coordinator; she does many presentations for Quilts of Valor. She has been in the group for seven years, but has been quilting for thirty years. She had a career as an engineer traveling to Alaska and many other places, but has since retired from that career, so is now able to pursue her dream of honoring Veterans. This is the first time to have Veterans from Musselshell County receive Quilts of Valor. This year the group has given away around forty quilts in Montana made by about five quilters. They are recruiting the local quilting group called Cross Country Peacemakers Guild to help make for quilts so that even more Veterans can receive one.

Lura Pitman

Special thanks was given to Signal Peak, who has made a donation for the group to help fund the material needed. Signal peak also made a donation after the ceremony, to Ron Carson for the veteran flag poles that are going to put up at the end of Main Street.

If you want more information about the Quilts of Valor, or would like to nominate a Veteran, please contact http://www.QOVF.org .