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Embraced by quilts: St. Patrick's Day inspires service for veterans

Fergus Falls Daily Journal - 3/19/2018

March 19--UNDERWOOD -- More than 180,000 service members and veterans touched by war have been warmed by the Quilts of Valor Foundation. With handmade quilts, the foundation seeks to bring comfort and healing to the nation's heroes.

Quilters Embrace of Otter Tail County -- comprised of three chapters -- donates quilts through Quilts of Valor and have made thousands of quilts for active and retired members of the U.S. Armed Forces. On St. Patrick's Day Saturday, they held their biggest fundraiser of the year, using the proceeds to purchase materials for the hundreds of quilts they deliver every 18 months directly to bases.

"We're doing a lot of them locally now so it keeps us going to fill our mission of covering our military members that have been touched by war one quilt at a time," Paulette Hoebelheinrich, president of Quilters Embrace of Otter Tail County said. "It's a fun day, people dressed in green, I've even seen a gentleman with a green beard, I'm wondering how he's going to get that color out but that's alright. Green beer is flowing and it's just a good day in Underwood."

Hosted by the Underwood American Legion and Underwood Lions, Saturday was filled with food, fun and community, as visitors showed up in droves to support what Quilters Embrace does. Beginning with a bake sale at 9 a.m. at the Underwood Community Center, the homemade goodies were sold until gone.

To keep with the Irish theme of the day, a dinner of corned beef and cabbage was served in the basement of the Underwood Legion where attendees had an opportunity to give a free-will offering for the meal. The Legion also hosted a silent auction during the event and raffled off a Minnesota Vikings quilt.

"There's not a place to sit right now downstairs here, every chair is filled, there's an absolutely great turnout, the folks have overflowed and gone upstairs to find chairs which is a great problem for our Legion to have," Jim Trochman, a member of the Underwood American Legion said while tending the downstairs bar.

Quilters for Quilters Embrace meet regularly in Fergus Falls at the Westridge Mall, the Community Center in Dent and St. James Catholic Church in rural Underwood. For more information, visit the Quilters Embrace Facebook page. For more information about the Quilts of Valor Foundation, visit qovf.org.

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(c)2018 the Fergus Falls Daily Journal (Fergus Falls, Minn.)

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