Quilts Beyond Borders and SUM Serve the World’s Children
Quilts Beyond Borders (QBB) is a wonderful, all-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It reaches out to underserved children across the world to provide a handmade quilt and spread love and hope. QBB began in March 2007 with the desire to reach out to these children. What began as an effort to provide quilts to over 1,000 orphans in Ethiopia has expanded to thousands of quilts to people in need in Haiti, Japan, Thailand, India, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Uganda, Burundi, Cameroon, Romania, Russia, Mexico, Kenya, USA, Jordan, Gaza, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Rwanda, Zambia, Peru, and Greece as well as Syria and children and elders living in the Navajo Nation.
A subset of the SUM Prayers and Squares ministry, the SUM Quilts Beyond Borders ministry began a few years ago when our quilters needed to branch out and find new homes for their quilts. Karen Matheson (who sadly passed away this year) became the coordinator of the Northeast Region for Quilts Beyond Borders, providing a great mission to receive our quilts. Some continue to make quilts for veterans and other folks with a special need.
Today, the Northeast QBB is a fluid group with contributions from not only all the NE states but also from as far away as Australia. The SUM studio currently has ten sewers with a network of approximately twenty-five others who consistently donate juvenile fabrics, completed quilts, tops, or provide either free motion or long arming of the quilts.
Each month, SUM ships finished quilts to disadvantaged groups within the U.S. and around the world. Most recently, quilts have been sent through Massay Yahdav to the Middle East for refugee camps and trauma centers where children are being treated for PTSD. Here in the U.S., quilts are provided to foster children through Comfort Care nationwide agencies and through camps like the Royal Family Kids Camp. In 2027, the ministry is planning to work with The Village in Hartford.
Imagine the joy revealing a beautiful, homemade quilt to a child in need. In some cases, it may be their only personal possession in a desperate situation. The value of this ministry’s work is measured in gleeful joy and comfort care whether it is for a VA or QBB quilt, comfort after surgery, or a cozy dog bed.
The Prayers and Squares and QBB ministries can always use volunteers to cut fabrics, design quilts, sew, knit, crochet, or quilt, or join us for packing days. Feel free to contact Stephani Cummings or Diane Carlson for QBB date/times and Donna Motyl or Leesa Plude for all other related ministries. The magic happens in a room above the office, but a sign-up is required as the door is kept locked. Your help and creativity are always welcome and needed for continuing success. Join us! As John Wesley says: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”
Diane Carlson, Stephani Cummings, together with Bruce Hale & the QBB Team