Quilts to Queensland

After our lovely break of a few days camping it was time to get back to work yesterday. I had already been packing quilts for distribution and thank to some serious sewing I'd managed to finish off more to add to them. The truck is on its way to Qld again and I spoke with one of the lovely people who does so much good work in distributing the items for me as well as for many others.
I sent up 43 quilts- mostly at least single bed size, 20 scarves, 101 knitted hats in various sizes, 6 SB crocheted blankets, 3 knitted sweaters for children, as well as many tote bags which will be used to give out the items to people who have nowhere to store them.
I'm also including a report form the lovely people who have been helping to distribute the quilts and warm items in Qld.

Just a quick message to let you know that Ipswich Streetlinks day went well and the homeless were dumbstruck by everything that we had for them to choose from, especially your quilts!

Some of your quilts we had kept back and on Friday we went to a place called HOPE Care. The lady who runs it (voluntarily) rang Friday morning absolutely desperate for blankets, quilts etc for their residents. It is a caravan park style with little units, the majority of the residents are either domestic violence victims, formerly homeless, very needy families and some recently released prisoners. The police/parole officers place them there, as they know they will be well looked after. Anyway we were chatting with her and a few of the residents were around. There was one lady, newly arrived from interstate , the police/welfare put her and her child on a bus to Brisbane, to get away from very bad domestic violence. She had left her partner a fair while ago, but didn't matter where they moved to, he found them and she got the same treatment, including holding her hands over open fires, stab wounds everywhere, plus the normal bashings etc etc. Her child has a serious illness and she was unable to stay at domestic violence shelters because there was no room for both of them. So for a few nights they slept in a park, until they were both assaulted. They spent a few days in hospital, then the police moved her to this caravan park under an assumed name. All they have is the clothes they have been wearing!! We knew there was a nice quilt or two of yours in the boxes, so my DH and I without any words spoken, just looked at each other and went through the boxes till we found two of your lovely quilts. When we handed them to the mum, she was speechless, started crying and so did the child. She couldn't believe that they were being GIVEN FREE OF CHARGE something so nice and what she knew would be warm!!! She asked us to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE thank the person who had made the beautiful quilts, so this is your thank you from both of them!! I don't even know her name, but after speaking with the manager for at least 2 hours, we will be back there very soon, when we have some more things to take for them. At present there are about 600 residents, not all of them are needy, but about 3/4 are, and about 1/4 0f them flood affected families.

Lorraine does so much for them, with very limited funds. We both came away from there just knowing we want to do more for Hope Centre!!

Just wish you could have seen the lady and her child's faces!!

They also got a beanie and scarf each and some other bits and pieces but they were just so appreciative of the quilts! Had to share this with you!

Hope you are keeping well, and keeping warm. Its COLD up here, can imagine what it is like down there!!

I wanted to share this lovely story with all of you who have been so supportive of these quilt appeals. Please know that we can make a difference to the lives of people who face many challenges every day because they don't have the normal thing we take for granted like a warm bed and a safe place to stay. I know that you will want to continue to help when you hear about these people so I will accept all items again and just have to sew a bit faster to get the quilts finished and out to where they are desperately needed.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your help.
Love and hugs, Jan Mac