Newtown Resident Doubles The Comfort
Two "Comfort Quilts" will be on display at the Newtown Municipal Center at Fairfield Hills, by next Wednesday, September 15, said Carole Ross, administrator for human resources for the Town of Newtown.
The quilts are the work of resident Jan Brookes, who solicited hand drawn quilt squares from children at the 2014 Breakfast With Santa, at Newtown Middle School. Those squares were combined with squares made by first grade students in the classroom of Eileen Monea, of St Hilary Catholic School in Fairlawn, Ohio — where the first Comfort Quilt originated in 2001 — as well as four more squares from young adults who were in Ms Monea's class at the time that quilt was made in response to 9/11.
The St Hilary's Comfort Quilt traveled first to St James Elementary School in Red Bank, N.J., where many were affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, then journeyed to several other sites in need of comfort, over the years.
It was delivered to Newtown following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, December 14, 2012.
Like many other items received, the quilt was displayed at the municipal center, but when the time came to distribute and archive items, the quilt could not be found.
Dismayed to find out about the loss of the special quilt, Ms Brookes, with input from a friend, Suzanne Davenport, decided that Newtown could duplicate the Comfort Quilt idea, and thus continue the thread of comfort passed from one community in need to another.
Read more about the two new Comfort Quilts in the September 18 edition of The Newtown Bee.