Bemidji’s St. Philip’s School Gives Quilts of Valor to Local Veterans

For Veterans Day on Monday, St. Philip’s Catholic School in Bemidji invited members from the Quilts of Valor Foundation to their Veterans Day program, where four local veterans were recognized and honored for their service.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation is an organization that provides handmade quilts to service members and veterans who have been affected by war. The group was originally started in 2003 by gifting a quilt to a young soldier from Minnesota, Walter Reed, when he returned home from Iraq after suffering seriouis injries.

Since then, the foundation has given away over 4,000 handmade quilts to veterans across the nation, including a couple hundred to veterans in the Bemidji area. HelenRuth Schuette made the four quilts given out on Monday, but she wishes she could make enough for every veteran in the area.

“Each time I do this, I wish we could give every vet a quilt, but we’re working on it,” said Schuette. “Our focus now is to honor the veterans that live in Beltrami County, and we hope that we’ve gotten all of the World War II veterans, Korean War, Vietnam War we’re working on now.”

“It’s quite amazing, it’s a beautiful quilt,” added Bidal Duran, a former Marine and MN House District 2A Representative-Elect, who received a quilt during the event. “And, you know, having these people do this, I’ve been going here for the last two years and with these quilts being given out, I think it’s just an awesome – it’s quite humbling and it’s an honor to receive one of these. It’s great.”

The ceremony marked the fourth year St. Philip’s Catholic School has done this type of Veterans Day program, and 10 quilts have been given away to veterans in that time.