Trinity Lutheran Members in Laporte Quilt Together for a Good Cause

A few members of Trinity Lutheran Church in Laporte have had a tradition of meeting every Thursday to make quilts for those in need. Each year, this dynamic group pieces together over 60 quilts that are donated to local organizations.

This dedicated band of volunteers has been starting Thursdays off with quilting for a long time. They start from 9 a.m., have a break at 10 to fill up on coffee and snacks, then get back to work until noon.

“Personally, I’ve been here like 20 years because that’s how long I’ve been retired,” said Trinity Lutheran Church member Linda Blanchard. “But one of our ladies says that she started in 1958, so it’s been going on a long time.

“This Thursday is always our day,” added church member Janice Marjamaa.

The only time these ladies do not work on a Thursday is if there’s inclement weather.

“Unless something happens that, you know, bad weather or something else that we decide we’re not going to do it that particular day,” stated Marjamaa. “It’s just every Thursday.”

This year, the volunteers have started doing something a little different, expanding their donation reach to a larger audience.

“Some [quilts] will go to Lutheran World Relief, but we’ve given also to the Bena shelter, the Peoples Church in Bemidji, and Cass County Social Services,” explained Blanchard. “And then in addition, we keep some back for like if people here in Laporte need it or we have a student graduating from high school or someone getting confirmed, then we like to give them a quilt as well.”

Quilting every Thursday for these ladies has given them the opportunity to give back and make lifelong friends.

“You know, we enjoy doing the quilting, but then we have fellowship, we have coffee and goodies, and it’s just a good, good way to build our relationships with people,” said Blanchard.

Although giving back to those in need is the main priority, Blanchard acknowledged the community and other churches for their support and fabric donations.

“[We] really say thank you to the many people that donate material because it takes a lot of material to make these quilts,” emphasized Blanchard. “And people have been so generous within the community and within our church. And some other churches have quit quilting and they’ve donated their material to us and we received grant money from Thrivent [Financial] to purchase material. So it’s a project that actually goes beyond our church.”

If you’d like to donate fabric to the group, you can visit their website here.