I Wish We Could Help Everyone

January 14, 2012

Each time I receive a quilt request, my heart goes out to the mother, father, wife or husband who lost their loved one.  And sometimes, I receive a request that just tears me apart… because I know I’ll have to say no.

Over the years, Freedom Quilts has needed to focus on a very specific segment of our mission — to make quilts for parents and spouses who have lost a loved on in the line of duty.  So, when a brother, sister or cousin asks me to make a quilt in honor of their loved one, it breaks my heart to have to say, I’m sorry.

I started this organization to comfort family members, and I dread having to say no. But I also know that Freedom Quilts is a small organization with limited funding.  On top of that, our quilts are made by a small group volunteers. With this limited financial capacity and manpower, we had to focus the mission. And, we choose to focus on parents and spouses.

I wish that Freedom Quilts was in a place today to make quilts for brothers, sisters, cousins and other family members who have lost their dear loved one. But I know that we just can’t. We work extremely hard just to try and meet the needs of our current mission’s focus — parents and spouses.

My hope is that, in the future, we will have the funding and the manpower to expand our mission to include other family members. But today, we unfortunately do not have this capacity.

God Bless,

Betty Nielsen
Freedom Quilts Founder