Guild members stitch lap quilts for Honor Flight veterans

Early on the morning of Oct. 12, 88 U.S. war veterans from the tristate area will board a flight at Stewart Airport and be flown to our nation’s capital to visit the World War, Korean, and Vietnam memorials and monuments.

As they do every year, members of the Delaware Valley Quilters Guild proudly made lap quilts for these veterans, which they will bring on their flight and keep afterwards. More than 100 donated lap quilts were presented last Thursday to volunteers from Hudson Valley Honor Flight, a nonprofit organization that transports the veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit their memorials at no cost to them.

The lap quilts were displayed at the Delaware Valley Middle School. Debby Kaweske, coordinator for the event, said members have been working hard since June to get the quilts ready.

“It’s good to give back, and we really care about our veterans," Kaweske said. "It’s a little something we can do.”

Lini Murawski said she and fellow quilter Marie Sandauer worked on four of the lap quilts. Murawski, whose husband was a veteran, said “Veterans have to be taken care of in any way we can. They should be respected and supported a lot more than they are.”

Similarly, quilter Carolina Difrenna of Milford was proud of her very first lap quilt, which she said took about six hours of work over two days.

Honor Flight volunteer Flo Santini said two veterans from Milford will be on the October flight. She knows first-hand what this means to them. Her husband, Dominic, was one of the first Korean War vets to go on the flight in April, 2015. He died three months later.

Santini said that, for the veterans, it is "a day they will never forget.”