Quilts of Valor Comfort

Quilter Marge Cowles in her home studio in Randolph Center. She and her husband Ed are active in the Quilts of Valor project sending quilts to injured soldiers. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Wounded U.S. Soldiers

By Sandy Vondrasek

More than 67,000 U.S. military personnel have suffered either physical or psychological wounds in military operations in Iraq and Afghan. A non-profit organization called Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOVF), which is keeping track of those soldiers, wants to give each and every one of them a beautiful, handmade quilt.

Marge and Ed Cowles of Randolph Center are doing their part to meet that goal, along with other quilters in the area. Marge, a long-time quilter, has made several of the lap-sized quilts herself, and machine-quilted about 20 tops that were pieced together by others.

Also, for the past few years, she and Ed have hauled a number of "longarm" quilting machines to the annual Machine Quilters Exposition in Manchester, so that QOVF quilts can be completed there, during the week-long exhibition.

They will head down to Manchester with their longarms in few weeks for the 2008 show, and will again man the QOVF display there for several days, Marge said.

The Cowles have longarms because they formerly sold Gammill longarm quilting machines. Their daughter in St. Albans now has the Gammill franchise. Marge continues to work as a professional machine quilter.

Since QOVF was founded, 15,000 quilts have been made and given to service people. For the most part, the quilts have been given to the most severely injured, many of them in veterans’ hospitals across the nation, the Cowles said.

St. Johnsbury Marine

One of Marge’s quilts went to Ryan Borgstrom of St. Johnsbury, the 23-year-old nephew of Randolph music teacher Marta Borgstrom.

Ryan Borgstrom, a Marine, was wounded in Iraq in August, 2004 by an exploding grenade, just two weeks after he arrived there, Marta Borgstrom said. He was sent to Germany for surgery and was returned to a U.S. base for further treatment for his wounds, which included an abdominal injury, and leg and hand injuries.

Ryan is now partially disabled, but is working part-time in St. J, and is a new dad, Marta said. He has some medical problems, suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and doctors are monitoring him carefully for possible lead poisoning, because he still has shrapnel in his body.

Borgstrom said she was able to deliver Cowle’s beautiful quilt to Ryan, once he returned to Vermont.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation, which wants to ensure that each donated quilt is a well-made, heirloom-quality one, details specifications on its website, www.QOVF.org.

A QOVF quilt, the site notes, must be able to stand up to multiple machine washings and daily use.

The quilts are "our way to give something tangible to our wounded, which will help them as they face the long and arduous road to recovery and reintegration back into civilian life."

The Cowles urged those interested in joining this project to check out the site, or to contact them at 728-5607.

Those wishing to donate a quilt top to be quilted at the April 14-19 exposition in Manchester, may drop them off at the Cowles’.

Quilt tops may also be dropped off at the Garden of Stitches quilt shop on Route 107 in Bethel. The shop is open Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The shop’s phone is 234-9965.