CASCADE — The Slap Happy Quilters are spreading warmth throughout the community by creating handmade quilts for children, veterans, women's shelters and foster kids.
"Kids need them. Our people need help. And there's so many out there that they need help. And we try to supply them with blankets or quilts, pillowcases, anything that they need," said Debbie Harber, leader of the Slap Happy Quilters.
Justin Robicheau reports - watch the video here:
The volunteer group operates at the Cascade Senior and Community Center, creating handmade quilts and assembling children's crisis comfort bags filled with coloring books, crayons and stuffed animals.
Cascade Senior and Community Center board president Susan Harris explains how those bags reach families.
"The comfort bags are kept by the fire departments. They're kept within their rigs. And so if they come upon an accident or someone that someplace that maybe has a child or someone that's injured that needs some comfort, they have these blankets. They have the bags that are given out to whoever is at the accident, whoever is at the scene," Harris said.
Harris says the bags can make a big difference during an emotional moment.
"They bring comfort. The bag they have, they can use it. They take it, they put their blanket back in it. They keep everything together so they can hold on to that. It's just a comfort thing," Harris said.
The Slap Happy Quilters also partner with the national Quilts of Valor program, which provides handcrafted quilts to military veterans. Volunteer Jeanne Ingram says the group's support helps her mission reach more servicemembers.
"The Slap Happy Quilters here in Cascade have supported us by donating fabric. They've also helped make quilts, and it's all volunteers. We make quilts. We present them to veterans to tell them thank you for your service, sacrifice, and valor," Ingram said.
For Slap Happy Quilters, it warms their hearts to see the results of their outreach.
"For us, it brings us a lot of joy, a lot of pride that we are able to help our communities, to help, the county, to help anyone that is in need of these," Harris said.
If you would like to donate anything quilt-related to the Slap Happy Quilters, you can go to the Cascade Senior and Community Center on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
