Thanks to quilter Anne Marcin and friends, 70 quilts and star blocks were donated to the Family Readiness program at

Hanscom Airforce Base where children received quilts and star blocks as they get ready for their loved ones to be deployed.

The Hanscom Airman and Family Readiness Center offers a variety of services and programs for all single and married active-duty military personnel, Department of Defense civilians, retired military personnel and family members. Programs are free of charge and held on base.

Follow Hanscom AFB on Facebook

More photos

SCITUATE WOMAN ASSEMBLES HER OWN TROOP TO SHOW LOVE FOR FAMILIES OF SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN

Anne Marcin calls on friends and family to help make 100 sports-inspired quilts to donate to children with parents in the armed forces to give them comfort while loved-ones are deployed.

Scituate, MA – Registered Nurse Anne Marcin, 52, of Scituate, MA, fell in love with the art of quilting in 1980. Having grown up in Burgundy France with a mother of an avid Red Sox fan even across the “big lake”, Anne quickly carried on her mother’s love for the team. Little did Anne know that her two loves would be combined at last year’s Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. Quiltathon at Fenway Park.

Excited to go to one of America’s favorite ballparks with three friends to do some charitable quilting, Anne learned quickly of Wrapped Up in Sports’ mission – to make, collect, and donate professional sports teams-inspired quilts for children in medical, social, and mental-health need. However that day, the organization had a specific mission in mind which was to create Red Sox inspired quilts for their Stars & Stitches Project where Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. would donate patriotic and professional sports team-inspired quilts along with matching 6″ quilted squares to US Military servicemen and women and their families. Each child would receive a quilt and their relative soldier would receive the matching 6″ quilted square to keep them connected.

Anne was inspired. She left that day and called on friends Maureen Anderson, Cyndi Meaney, along with members of the Crosstown Quilters of Weymouth, Herring Run Quilts Guild in Norwell and Coastal Quilters to help her with her own personal goal of donating a total of 100 quilts to Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. from a new troop she dubbed the “Genesis All Star Team”. Volunteers helped Anne make the quilt tops almost every other Sunday and then Maureen Anderson of Anderson Quilting, a longarm quilting business in Holbrook, MA would help complete the quilts.

After already donating 30 quilt tops in April, Anne, Cyndi, and Maureen gathered recently to hand deliver the remaining 70 finished quilts and corresponding stars last week to Kate McCullough, President and Founder of Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. “I was nearly moved to tears when they opened the car to reveal a trunk full of beautifully completed Red Sox, Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and New England Revolution quilts! We are so grateful for how much love went into this project and we can’t wait to give them to the children of families in our armed forces.”

“Volunteering is part of my life and I am lucky enough to be able to assist others who need it and do something I enjoy (quilting) in the process.” Anne says. When asked what her message would be to the service men and women whose children would be receiving her quilts she said, “THANK YOU!!!! That would be my message. They donate their lives for our freedom. Hours of quilting could never repay what they give us.”

***
Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization dedicated to making, collecting, and donating professional sports teams-inspired quilts for children in medical, social, and mental-health need. For more information about the organization, how to get involved, or to make a gift, please visit www.wrappedupinsports.org or contact Kate McCullough at (857) 891-1612 or kate@wrappedupinsports.org.

***

Cyndi Meaney of Bridgewater, MA, Maureen Anderson of Bridgewater, MA and also Anderson Quilting of Holbrook, MA along with Anne Marcin of Scituate, MA deliver the car-load of 70 beautiful hand-made sports-inspired quilts to Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. (www.wrappedupinsports.org)

Calling All Quilters and Volunteers!
Join us for a fun-filled day of quilting to help children in need!

DATE: Saturday, February 18, 2012
EVENT TIME: 9:00am – 4:00pm
EVENT NAME: 3rd Annual Wrapped Up in Sports, Inc. Quiltathon
EVENT LOCATION: Fenway Park – Boston, MA (EMC Room)

It’s baaack! The 3rd Annual Quiltathon is scheduled to take place on Saturday, February 18, 2012 at Fenway Park!

In honor of Fenway’s 100th Anniversary, the goal has been set to make 100 quilt tops before the day’s end!

Our last quiltathon produced over 50 quilt tops that were donated to the families of our US militarymen and women. We also raised over $2,500 for Wrapped Up in Sports, which has gone towards quilt materials and supplies, shipping of quilts and expanding our cause throughout New England!

Pre-made quilt kits w/ instructions, donated fabrics and other supplies will be provided, but we entice quilters to bring their own sewing machines and supplies as well.

Completed quilts will be donated to

• Room to Grow
• Hospitality Homes
• Children’s Hospital Boston
• Horizons for Homeless Children.

Complimentary food and refreshments will be provided
Raffles & Gifts will be awarded
AND expect a visit from Red Sox favorite Wally who is looking forward to coming back to sew!
A full day is not required. Volunteers are encouraged to attend throughout the day. The longer you stay, the more quilts will be made for children in need.

Come participate for a worthy cause – making children smile!

• To view pictures from the March 2011 event, please click here.
• To watch video from the March 2011 event, please click here.
• Watch our profile on The Red Sox Report, please click here

Many thanks to our supporters:

• Fenway Enterprises, LLC
• Sweet K, LLC
• Bottom Line Apparel

REGISTER HERE

We hope you will be able to join us!!!

As a former child leukemia patient who has been in remission for over twenty years, I am extremely aware of how various non-medical elements aided in my recovery. I was very lucky to have many close friends and family who loved and cared about me.

No matter how down I was or how melancholy my mood, I always looked forward to visits or cards from friends and classmates. I still have a book of cards that my classmates made, wishing me well. Another occasion I remember vividly was a day I was feeling particularly dejected, due to my medication and overall situation. A classmate brought me an adorable stuffed dog. I named him Hospibet because he made me feel better in the hospital.

Situations like mine validate how the quilts created by Wrapped-Up in sports are able to bring a smile to the face of any child whose condition is less than ideal. They not only deliver comfort, warmth, and a smile but they are wonderful mementos of the fact that there are people who care about their predicaments.

As part of our Stars & Stitches project, 39 quilts and star blocks were selected by family members. They loved each and every quilt that was available and can’t wait to send the star blocks to their relatives overseas.

Many thanks to our volunteer quilters and Squanicook Colonial Quilt Guild for the quilts they have donated to this very special project!

US military Servicemen & women and their families!

About 50 quilts are packaged and ready to be delivered!

Each quilt has a matching star block that will be donated to each child and soldier forever keeping them connected.

VOLUNTEER

Would you like to participate in our Stars & Stiches campaign?
Click HERE to learn how!

Photo Album

Wrapped Up in Sports is thrilled to donate another 20 quilts to Room To Grow!

We love this organization and so happy we can continue supporting its mission!

Learn more about Room to Grow

They are already in use and are the perfect size for the isolettes.
When the infant patients are ready to go home, they will go home with one of the quilts that helped to keep the light out and keep them warm.

ABOUT

At South Shore Hospital, our family-centered care is the primary reason why we’ve become the region’s number one choice for maternity care.

Family-centered care means honoring patient and family preferences. Our approach is built on five principles:

1. Respect
2. Information sharing
3. Collaboration
4. Family-to-family support
5. Confidence building

When you combine our philosophy with our medical and nursing expertise and our partnerships with world-renowned academic medical centers, families experience an ideal blend of skill and compassion.

Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Staff believes:

• In caring for babies with tenderness and love.
• That families are not visitors.
• In promoting strong family bonds.
• In working with parents so they develop confidence and skill to care for their babies in the hospital and at home.
• In maintaining a warm and nurturing environment for families.
• In providing the most advanced technology delivered by a skilled team of professionals.
• In welcoming families to provide care and comfort for their babies.
• In creating opportunities for mother/baby intimacy within the context of a high-tech environment.

15 Vertex employees volunteered to help make quilt kits, complete quilts and assist in other tasks.

Many thanks to Vertex and the volunteers for helping out!
It was a great day and we had a lot of fun and shared a lot of laughs.

Photo Album

While in NYC for the September 11th 10 year anniversary memorial, Wrapped Up in Sports founder, Kate McCullough, came across the 9/11 Peace Story Quilt at the MET. We hope many of you get the chance to see exhibition.

9/11 Peace Story Quilt

August 30, 2011–January 22, 2012

The 9/11 Peace Story Quilt was designed by Faith Ringgold and constructed in collaboration with New York City students ages eight through nineteen. The quilt poignantly conveys the importance of communication across cultures and religions to achieve the goal of peace. Comprised of three panels, each with twelve squares on the theme of peace, the quilt will be displayed alongside several original works of art that inspired its content.

Faith Ringgold is well known for her story quilts: art that combines painting, quilted fabric, and storytelling. Her work has been exhibited in major museums around the world and can be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art, among others. In addition to writing and illustrating eleven children’s books, she has been the recipient of more than seventy-five awards, fellowships, citations, and honors, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship for painting, two National Endowment for the Arts Awards, and seventeen honorary doctorates.

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2011/the-911-peace-story-quilt