Other Non-Emergency Organizations Receiving Quilts

1

Douglas County Task Force

Castle Rock CO (Birthday Room) 

Susanne Greene, (far right) Douglas County Task Force director, displays some of our FHQ snuggle quilts with three of her employees.  FHQ quilts are kept in their ‘Birthday Room’. 

If a parent doesn’t have enough money to buy a present for their child’s  birthday, the Task Force allows them to choose one nice

gift from the Task Force's Birthday Room to take home with them.

Next Task Force Delivery, December 2007

We wanted to be sure they had enough snuggle quilts to give the children for Christmas time so on

December 17, 2007, we delivered 23 more quilts

to their main office in Castle Rock.

Pictured to the right are the ladies in the office, including Suzanne Greene on the far right and Ellen Palmer (FHQ) in front, displaying a special Christmas pattern created by Bonnie Guy (FHQ).

They were so excited to receive the quilts because they had a lot of people coming in that week that needed assistance and had no money to buy Christmas gifts for their children.  Our delivery came just in time.

2

Gateway Safe House

Battered Women's Shelter

Denver, CO

Barbara McCrorie, Joy (Gateway Safe House) & Dusty Darrah delivered over 100 snuggle quilts for the children affected by domestic abuse/violence.

Joy sent a nice thank you card soon after

receiving their delivery.

3

Douglas Co. Sheriff CSVs

Castle Rock, CO

Douglas County Sheriff Dave Weaver & Community Safety Volunteer Mike Darrah display one of the FHQ snuggle quilts we donated for them to give to children in crisis.

You can read stories of quilt deliveries by CSVs here.

4

Conifer Resource Center

Conifer, CO

We delivered 40 snuggle quilts to the Conifer Resource Center.

 They help people in need up in the hills west of the Denver area.

Marvena Baker-Shriver is their Dir of Operations.

Here’s Marvena’s message after receiving our donation.

 Vicki Kowal and Marvena Baker-Shriver    

5

Denver Rescue Mission

Denver, CO

Barbara McCrorie (far left) & Ellen Palmer (middle in red) made a large quilt delivery to the Denver Rescue Mission in May 2007.

Larry Griffin (middle left)

Director of the Denver Rescue Mission, Lawrence Street Shelter

Jenny Whitcher, (far right) Public Relations Coordinator

6

Douglas Co Human Services

Castle Rock, CO

In December, 2006, we delivered 18 quilts for children in Castle Rock at theDouglas County Human Services.

The case worker, Margaret Elliott & her boss gladly accepted them andwill give them to the children that

come through theirchild protective services department.

L-R-Dusty Darrah (FHQ), Margaret Elliott

            (case worker) & her boss

7

Eli’s Angels

Thornton, CO

The children in this program are under the age of 10 & have Leigh’s disease or some other Mitochondrial/ Metabolic disorders that severely limit their life span. Each of the children in Eli’s Angels group received a FHQ snuggle quilt for their birthday this year.  Periodically, as we receive thank you notes from the kids' parents, we'll post them here.

(L-R) Vicky Reed, Mary Peterson, Ann Kurtz (founder of Eli’s Angels),    

Dusty Darrah, Barbara McCrorie, Cathy Owen, Susan Howarth,               

Ellen Palmer & Jane Layng are the volunteers pictured here.

8

Denver Health Medical Center

Denver, CO

Denver Health Medical Center employees pictured here

with FHQ Lucy Letellier & Dusty Darrah at

one of our deliveries for their ‘baby bags’. 

The hospital gives each new mother a ‘baby bag’

filled with diapers, powder, booties

and one of our snuggle quilts. 

See the little booties Lucy Letellier made

                    out of fleece?

Helping Newborns at Denver Hospital

A few months ago, I heard the volunteers at the hospital send the newborns home with a gift bag full of items for the new mothers brand new baby.  The items they needed the most were quilts!

Since we had some extra snuggle quilts and fleece blankies in the storage bins, I delivered some to the hospital so they could be included in the gift bags too. 

As Ruth & her volunteers started opening the delivery bags,

I heard several excited gasps.  They were appreciated so much!

9

Father Judy’s House

Ft Logan, CO

Barbara McCrorie set up this deliver and we took 40 quilts to the Father Ed Judy House that helps children in the Ft Logan area.  They were very happy to receive them and

promised to put them to good use.

Barbara McCrorie, Dusty Darrah & Ft Luptons representative

10

11

Colorado Rett Syndrome

Denver, CO

Judi Masters, an employee of Action Care, has a 2½ year old granddaughter, Katelyn, that has Rett Syndrome.  These children are born apparently ‘normal’ but soon things start to happen; loss of speech and/or walking skills are among the biggest symptoms that are noticed and so hard to diagnose. 

There are about 20 girls in their group & they had a kick-off lunch June 2 to plan their fund raising Stroll A Thon for Aug 11, 2007.  (same time as our Quilt Show.) 

Since we weren't available ‘then’ to give them quilts, I delivered about 20 ‘girl-y’ quilts to Judi

for them in April so each one of them could have one of the quilts in the strollers with them

during their Stroll A Thon. 

Visit their website corettsyndrome.org for additional information.

12

Department of Human Services

Children, Youth & Family Division

in Fort Collins, CO.

(Pictured L-R) Dusty Darrah (FHQ), Christina Ulrich-Jones (Dept of Human Services),

Jane Layng (FHQ), Joanne Murphy (Dept of Human Services),

Jacque Schneider (FHQ) & Mary Peterson (FHQ)

Soon after we delivered 65 snuggle quilts to Department of Human Services in Fort Collins, we received a nice note letting us know how the distribution to the children went.

"I wanted to tell you that all the quilts were grabbed quickly by case workers today!  They took them to their most needy families along with the Christmas Gifts for the kids.  I will send you some tidbits when I hear some stories.  The one that I do know about is a 16 year old girl who grew up in the Foster Care system due to severe abuse and mental illness issues...she will be getting a cuddle quilt and a teddy bear and her case worker was thrilled with the choice of colors!  We put it around the big giant Bear in the big giant gift bag.  I know she will love it." 

Thanks again,

Christina

"Volunteering is Good for the Heart" 

In August, 2008, we received a note from Kacy, one of their caseworkers about a little girl she had given one of our quilts to. 

She said "I thought you may want to pass this on to whoever makes the blankets.  I was able to take a blanket to a little girl this weekend.  She was so thrilled she dragged me into her bedroom and showed me how she was going to put it on her bed.  While I was interviewing her she kept stroking the blanket with her fingers while talking.  She seemed to be very excited about her new blanket!

13

Women in Crisis

Arvada, CO

This organization offers a home to ‘head of household’ women with children that need a ‘hand up’. 

Since the residents may not have the money to buy their children a Christmas gift, we told Lindsay to use our quilts as their gifts.  She just beamed!

We've already received a thank you card from their director. 

Karen Schlegel & Lindsay from House of Hope

14

Littleton Hospital

Littleton, CO

We delivered 75 snuggle quilts to the After Hours & Pediatrics departments

at the Littleton Hospital. 

Here's a Thank You card from their staff.

Hi ! !  Thank you so much for all of the beautiful quilts. 

We have taken delight in giving them out and they have been received with glee and appreciation.

Thank you for your hard work and generosity.

Sincerely,

The Staff at Littleton Children’s After Hours unit

15

Jeffco Children's Alliance

Lakewood, CO

Sue King delivered 26 snuggle quilts to the Jeffco Children’s Alliance.

Here's a thank you we received from them afterwards.

We appreciate you thinking of the child victims of abuse we serve. Our children leave after a medical exam or forensic interview clutching in their little hands either a stuffed animal or a quilt (or both) and we see the exact same security animal or quilt in court when they have to testify and in any follow up interviews. 

They really bond with a security item and Mom's tell us that they even have to sneak around and clean the security item after the child falls asleep as they won't let loose of them for months at a time.  So your love and care in making these quilts is profoundly appreciated!

16

Quilts of Fish & Butterflies

Rarely do the volunteers of Firehouse Quilts get the honor of participating in the actual delivery of our snuggle quilts

to the children themselves. 

This delivery to Tanner & Nick Wilmer was exceptional. 

(Pictured L-R)   Barbara Dean, Dusty Darrah, Jacque Schneider, Nick Wilmer & Tanner Wilmer (front)

Tanner (seated in front) will have brain surgery in California around Christmas this year, to help control his seizures. 

We wanted to give him a unique lap quilt to use with his wheelchair and to have with him in the hospital after surgery. 

We chose a bright & cheery quilt with

fun little fish swimming on it.

 Tanner, 12 years old,  has had problems similar to Epilepsy since birth.  Doctors say they've never seen a disease or problem like this before so he hasn't ever been formally diagnosed.

We printed his picture onto a fabric label for the back of his quilt with good wishes from Firehouse Quilts for his surgery.

Fabric Quilt Label on the back of Tanner's quilt.

Tanner’s brother, 9 year old Nick, hopes to accompany him from Parker, Colorado to California with their parents. 

We wanted to make sure Nick felt very special too and hand-picked this pretty butterfly snuggle quilt for him. 

His eyes really lit up when he saw the other bugs

in the borders of the quilt.

Nick, inspecting his butterfly quilt, looking for more bugs.

Both boys were so thrilled with their quilts, they slept with them

the very first night after we delivered them.

Their mom, Kris, was delighted to see the boys so happy and that each had their own quilt.   What a wonderful family!

Kris Wilmer, mom

Soon . . . . we received a thank you note from Kris & the boys.

We received another heartwarming note from Kris the day after our delivery about a local hospital trip. 

Read it here.

Victim Advocates

Highlands Ranch, CO.

18

Victim Advocates

Sheridan, CO

2010

20 Quilts to Sheridan Victim Advocates

Sheridan Victim Advocates – an organization that works with the Sheridan Police Department

helping people involved in domestic violence situations.  The organization works around the clock

with 3 staff and about 8 volunteers to make sure people have the basic necessities

and referrals they need to deal with a horrible situation.

They were all extremely appreciative of the quilts

and explained that they give them to children and 

families in crisis both in the field  and in

probation classes they teach. 

They especially liked the way the quilts were individually packaged in plastic bags so they can all

keep a supply in their cars and they stay clean and nice for the kids. 

“The visits were fun & really brought home the purpose of this special organization –

as if getting together with a great bunch of women and

making beautiful quilts wasn’t enough!”

(Kim)  

Kim Luedke, Cheryl & Autumn (Victim Advocates) Sherri Mayne, Lynn Emch & Dusty Darrah display quilts given to Sheridan Victim Advocates.

They carry our quilts in the trunks of their cars and appreciate our individual packaging in plastic bags. 

They said our quilts are appreciated by parents, even more than stuffed animals or toys.

It was a very informative and enjoyable afternoon.  It's great to see where our quilts go and

know they are a comfort to someone.  (Lynn)  

My biggest impression of our delivery was how much all these people help the community and how excited they get when then receive our quilts.  To learn that the kids and families would rather have a quilt instead of a stuffed animal really amazed me.  Kids like toys, but to find out that the quilts make such a connection with them and they can snuggle up with them and used them to give them security that they need at that traumatic and emotional time of their life.  (Sherri)

"It makes me proud of our Firehouse Quilts organization and all the women (and husbands) who put so much time and effort into these quilts.  It gives me faith in mankind that there are so many good people in the community who really give so much of themselves to help those in need, especially the children." 

(Sherri)

"It's so important that the volunteers making the quilts actually

get to participate in the quilt deliveries and see the reaction of the

fire departments and advocate employees when they see our quilts."

"Besides being a huge motivational factor, they get to see

how the quilts are distributed at the other end and

how appreciative the recipients are."

Dusty Darrah

Victim Advocates

Sheridan, CO

2009

Cheryl with the Victim Advocates office in Sheridan,CO shows some of FHQ snuggle quilts she gives to children in crisis.

It seems that she might deal with children in a one-on-one basis,

more often than some of the fire departments. 

If you have any  stuffed animals (behind her) in good condition

that might be looking for a new home, feel free to call

any Victim Advocates office

in the county nearest you and ask if they can use them too.