Quilt Delivery and Donations 2023
Love Quilt Project President Gretchen Ginnerty has returned from another successful quilt delivery in South Africa. The quilt donations were made possible by our partners at Springs Creative Group and The Bandanna Company, along with all those involved in making art squares and our talented volunteer quilters. THANK YOU!
From Gretchen:
“We arrived in the Lily of the Valley Children’s Village, located in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal region, on a cool summer day in February. We delivered our lesson plan, teaching the 98 children about how the healing powers of love can change the world and that love, kindness, and compassion are the common threads that bind us all. The children enjoyed creating messages of support and love on the fabric art squares we provided, which will be stitched into quilts for other children.
After the lesson, the children received their own quilts with delight, and many then raced to their bedrooms to put them on their beds! Along with wide smiles, the quilts brought brilliant color and life into the Children’s Village. The Love Quilt Project also donated $4,000 to be used towards educational needs for these children.
We then traveled to the Western Cape region, where we met with ten children living in foster homes in the township of Masiphumelele. We have known many of these children for more than a decade and they call me “Auntie G!” Through the generosity of parishioners at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia, we donated more than $16,000 to help cover tuition fees to schools for these children, as well as to help pay for related tutoring, computers, school transportation, uniforms, books, and more. We also gifted six more quilts to help replace a few that were more than a decade old, a quilt to the new house mother, and a Love Quilt for the newest resident, a 3-year old girl.
During my visit with Home from Home Executive Director Peter Marx, we discussed his organization’s education-related challenges and support needs for the more than 200 children living in its 35 foster homes across the Western Cape. Approximately 150 of these children go to school, but are not necessarily getting a quality education due to inequities that still exist in the South African education system. The Love Quilt Project is raising funds to help more of these children have better access to a quality education.
We will return to South Africa in January 2024 to deliver additional quilts to children living in Home from Home’s foster homes. If you are interested in participating in a quilt delivery in South Africa, please email us at lovequiltproject@gmail.com and we will send you additional information by June 2023.
Thank you all for your continued contributions and support to The Love Quilt Project.”
