Volunteer quilters step in to comfort kids

[UsaPride]

Volunteer quilters step in to comfort kids


By Nomee Landis
Staff writer



Christian Roman missed his daddy, an Army helicopter pilot who was deployed to Iraq shortly after the war started last year.

The little boy didn't understand why Chief Warrant Officer Michael Roman was not coming home from work every day. So Christian's grandma, Ann Flaherty, an avid quilter who lives in Carolina Lakes, sewed the toddler his own patchwork quilt with pictures of his daddy stitched right in.

''It worked. He calmed down," Flaherty said. ''He dragged that quilt everywhere. He wouldn't let anyone touch it."


Ann Flaherty
Then Ann Flaherty's daughter, Sgt. Kathleen Flaherty, a soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division, told her of another child who might be helped by a daddy quilt.

Then another. Then another. That is how Ann Flaherty's little idea grew into a grand scheme to provide even more children with portable, snuggly reminders of their deployed parents. Flaherty called her project Operation Kid Comfort, and it has been stitching smiles for more than a year now.

This past fall, Ann Flaherty had to turn over the day-to-day details of the project to someone else because she is being treated for colon cancer. Doctors found the cancer in September.

Ann, who is 48, and her husband, Stephen Flaherty, have been at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem since Dec. 8. Ann Flaherty has been in for surgery twice. But her doctors say she will need no chemotherapy, that all the cancer is gone.

The Flahertys will remain at the hospital for Christmas, but they hope to be home before the new year.

While they have been gone, the sewing machines have been humming. About 45 volunteers of all ages appear at the Fort Bragg/ Pope Air Force Base Armed Services YMCA each week to clip and stitch squares of fabrics into quilts. The goal was to complete 1,500 quilts by year's end. Volunteers have sewn about 1,300.

The quilts are made especially for children 5 and younger. They cost the families nothing.

''These quilts are free of charge," Ann Flaherty said. ''This is our way of saying 'thank you' for what they are doing for us."

The quilts not only serve to comfort the children, Ann Flaherty said, they also help ease the worries of deployed parents.

''I hear from the soldiers that their biggest fear is their little ones are going to forget who they are," Ann Flaherty said.

The quilts keep children's memories of their parents fresh, Flaherty said, so that when their parents step off those airplanes back home, their children know them.


Military ties

The Flahertys moved from Boston to North Carolina seven years ago to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Four of the seven children have ties to the military, and two are in North Carolina. They have eight grandchildren.

Just after the war began, Flaherty's daughter, son and son-in-law were deployed.

Ann Flaherty credits her family's support in getting Operation Kid Comfort going.

Stephen Flaherty bought the plane ticket that allowed her to attend the International Quilt Market in Houston last year. It's a major trade show for the quilting industry.

By the time the show ended, Flaherty had received donations of fabric and batting worth $16,500. Those materials have seen the project through the first year, but the supply is dwindling.

The Flahertys' son-in-law, Victor Flavius, works as a graphic artist in Atlanta. He is married to their daughter, Jessica. Flavius designed the Operation Kid Comfort logo.

Home Depot donated some storage cabinets that Stephen Flaherty and grandson Christopher Boyd installed. Hewlett-Packard donated scanners and printers. Local businesses have donated materials and cash.

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Daughter Kathleen Flaherty served as a disc jockey when the project needed a little promotion.

''It was a family adventure to get this going," Ann Flaherty said.

Stephen Flaherty is quicker to give his wife the credit, however. She has spent many hours at home, making kits for the project, he said. She will cut the quilt squares and package them with instructions to make it easier on the volunteers.

Ann Flaherty has received the Iron Mike Award for her volunteerism on Fort Bragg. And her project was recognized in Washington by defense contractor Raytheon Corp. The project won the 2004 Raytheon Award - Best New Program. The awards recognize creative, innovative Armed Services YMCA programs that benefit military members and their families.

After Flaherty recovers, she hopes to expand Operation Kid Comfort to military installations nationwide. At Fort Bragg, Kim Newton and Peggy Michaels are keeping the operation going in Flaherty's absence, but Flaherty hopes to be back soon.

It has been a bit difficult to turn over her pet project, she said.

''It is my baby," Ann Flaherty said. ''It helps me get to my next step in getting Operation Kid Comfort on other bases. It is hard, but it is a good thing. I want it to continue growing as well. I want the families that it supports to have ownership of the program. This is for them. It is theirs."

Donations to the project may be sent to Operation Kid Comfort/ASYMCA, 208 Thorncliff Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28303. For more information, call (910) 436-0500.

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