Veterans honored in Winslow

WINSLOW, Ariz. — The Winslow Material Girls Quilting Guild met on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, at the Hubbell Building to honor three veterans and present them with quilts for their service in the military.

Three veterans received quilts at the meeting and spoke briefly of their military service.

The older veterans were Dave Conatser and Sam Conner, both of whom were in the Air Force during the Korean War. Conatser was stationed in Korea as an air traffic controller. Conner was stationed in Germany and was a Russian linguist with the Security Service. Dave Rush, the younger veteran, was in the Army during the Gulf War.

Pat Barnes, who invited the veterans to the event with their wives and others and is very active in the organization, shared information about the Guild and its activities, including the Quilt of Honor.

“The Quilt Guild has been sending and/or giving quilts to our local veterans for at least five years,” Barnes said. “The first two years Betty Slonszewski headed up the committee under the auspices of the Arizona Quilt Guild (who had given us grants for the project). We first sent the quilts to the Washington D.C. national headquarters for Quilts of Valor, but quickly realized that we had no idea to whom those quilts were given. We wanted to know who received our quilts, so the Quilts of Honor was born. We now choose our local veterans who served in combat in any capacity, to be the recipient of the quilts.”

Rozella Leonard is the head of the Quilt of Honor committee, but the entire quilt guild has been involved in one way or another by donating the fabric and batting, helping piece the quilts together, working on the labels and completing the binding, and local quilters have done the machine quilting with beautiful and often intricate quilting.

“We present quilts to our local veterans once a quarter usually having three to four of our military receiving the finished quilts,” Barnes said.

The Material Girls Quilt Guild is a community minded organization and regularly contributes quilt projects to hospitals, the fire department, The Festival of Trees and the Chamber of Commerce for their “Taste of Winslow.” Each summer several guild members work with local children on the annual library project where children create a sewing project.

“The kids love joining us at the library and we quilters enjoy them as well,” he said.

The next presentation of the Winslow Material Girls Quilting Guild takes place Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. at the Hubbell Building. The meeting is open to the public.

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