Ladies of the Sheyenne Addition Homemakers and Jamestown quilter Beth Cole present the quilts of valor to  Barnes County Veterans Service Officer (VSO) Jim Verwey. Left to Right: Claudia Gilbertson, Karen Christianson, Judy Bowen, Jim Verwey, Beth Cole. (Steve Browne/VCTR) 

By Steve Browne
Valley City Times-Record

Ladies of the Sheyenne Addition Homemakers club presented Barnes County Veterans Service Officer Jim Verwey with the quilts of valor they've worked on since January.
Verwey will now start the process of selecting wounded and injured veterans to present the quilts to.
“I've got two quilts from the ladies, and Beth brought another four from Jamestown. I really appreciate all the work these ladies do for our veterans,” Verwey said.
Quilts of Valor Foundation was started in 2003 by Catherine Roberts of Seaford, Del., when her son was being deployed to Iraq, according to Beth Cole, a professional quilter in Jamestown. Roberts came up with the idea of enlisting amateur and professional quilters to make quilts for soldiers suffering from physical or psychological wounds.
In January, the Sheyenne Addition Homemakers were looking for a project  and found out about Quilts of Valor from Cole, who had worked with groups in Minnesota. This is the first quilt project in North Dakota according to club member Claudia Gilbertson.
Cole has a personal interest in the project; she has a son serving with the Army in Iraq.
“He drives a Humvee on patrol and he's had two blown up from under him,” Cole said. “I started helping with the Minnesota groups and started stirring the pot here.”

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.