Over the next few weeks, we will be working on posting a series of blogs featuring some of the newest UW Bucks member agencies.
In this “Member Agency Spotlight”, we want to acquaint you with these agencies, what services they provide to our community, and ways that you can get involved.
We had a Q&A with Linda Ayre, Founding President of Quilts For Kids, Inc.
Mission: Transforming fabrics into patchwork quilts that comfort children in need. These are children with life-threatening illnesses, children of abuse, and children living at poverty level and below.
What is your name and position at your organization and how long have you worked there?
Linda Arye, Founding President, Quilts For Kids, Inc. I have been working for 18 years with QFK.
Tell us something interesting about yourself? I was an Interior Designer who got tired of all the waste in the textile industry and created the charity www.quiltsforkids.org as a way of repurposing discontinued fabric into quilts that comfort children in need. I love cooking, traveling with my husband and enjoying time with my daughter, and son-in-law.
What does your organization do and what is your mission?
Our mission is to transform fabric into handmade patchwork quilts that comfort children in need. These are children from birth through age 22 years, with life threatening illnesses, poverty and abuse. We are also first responders who have donated quilts to children of 9-11, Katrina, Sandy, school shootings, wild fires, and floods. If there is a child out there who is in need of some comforting we want to be able to wrap them in a quilt that is made of love.
How long have you been in operation in Bucks County?
18 years – the charity started in 2000.
What are some programs and services that you offer?
We have quilt workshops daily – Monday through Friday from 10-3:00 as well as the first Sunday of each month. If you have any sewing skills, we can work with you so you learn how to quilt. Bring your sewing machine and a good quality thread and we will teach you how to pull together a quilt using one of our beginner quilt kits, which are no cost to you. If you are new to quilting, we ask that you keep coming in until you finish your quilt-which is then donated to a child in need.
What are some ways that members of the community can get involved with your organization?
We always need volunteers who want to sew. If you have a machine, bring it. We do daily quilt workshops from 10-3:00 during the week and are happy to teach you how to use your sewing skills to learn to quilt. If you already know how to quilt, we need your talent in order to reach more children who are fighting a life battle with an illness, abuse or poverty. We are also delivering quilts to the children of the Parkland school shooting and need quilters to help us create them. We also would love to work with any social media or tech savvy folks who would like to work with us on our social media and web site.
Why is being a member agency with The United Way of Bucks County important to your team?
It is a way for more people in our community to know about us and to help when and where help is needed. We become part of a larger community. Usually it is the quilter helping us-but we always need help in getting quilts shipped out, the funds raised by non-quilters is helping us do that.
What are some of your goals for 2018?
Our goal is always to reach more children in need in our community and beyond. Right now, we have added the Parkland Fl. High School students and their families, to our gifting. We have been asked to provide quilts and we are working to make sure that any Parkland student needing a quilt has one. We are also working to create memory quilts for the families who have lost children in that school shooting.
Anything else you would like to share?
If you have the desire to learn to quilt, please come visit us to see what we are all about. We have a store full of beautiful fabric that is for sale-which offsets the cost of shipping and purchasing the fabrics that the children most ask for. Please visit when you are in the neighborhood, we would love to give you a tour.
Contact info:
Website: www.quiltsforkids.org
Phone: 215-295-5484
Email: info@quiltsforkids.org