Thank You, Veterans

Navy veteran Dr. Ron Lessman sits for a portrait with his quilt of valor and other military memorabilia in his Cape Girardeau office.

TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Quilts of Valor program provides handmade quilts to veterans

A few days each year, Americans observe holidays that honor and commemorate veterans. American flags line driveways and parks and decorate the windows of businesses and homes. For the veterans who gave their service and risked their lives to protect American liberty, those days are some of the only appreciation they receive.

Nancy Kester demonstrates quilting techniques in her sewing room at her home in Cape Girardeau.

TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

But for many local quilters, thanking veterans is a honor sewn into the fabric of their hearts.

Mary Green is one of three chairpersons for the Quilts of Valor project through the River Heritage Quilt Guild in Cape Girardeau, along with Karla Kiefner and Donna Irwin. The project presents veterans who have been nominated by a friend or family member with quilts as a way to thank them for their service. Green says the local guild has presented 28 veterans with quilts since the project began in 2014.

The project is just one arm of the Quilts of Valor Foundation, a national organization whose mission is “to cover all combat service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.”

Since 2003, when the national foundation originated, 198,175 quilts have been awarded to veterans.

Karla Kiefner, left, and Nancy Kester pose with a Quilt of Valor at Kester's home in Cape Girardeau Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018.

TYLER GRAEF ~ tgraef@semissourian.com

Members of the guild who wish to make a quilt for veterans have one year to complete the quilt, Green says, and must follow specific guidelines to ensure quality, consistency and cleanliness.

“Many of our veterans have gone off to fight, to sacrifice their lives … and come home and don’t have the gratification that is so well-deserved,” Green says. “To have an organization that is willing to do something for people that they don’t even know, to give them something to keep forever as a reminder of a thank you and appreciation, that’s what it’s all about.”

Former recipient and United States Navy veteran Ron Lessman says he was “totally overwhelmed” to receive his Quilt of Valor three years ago.

“I look at it often and use it in the wintertime,” Lessman says, noting the quilt’s beauty and detail.

Ellis Brown, 10, works on a Quilt of Valor for her grandfather using her grandmother, Nancy Bishop's sewing machine.

Submitted photo

Lessman hails from Baltimore, attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and spent 21 years in the Navy. During his service, Lessman spent time in Cuba “chasing the Russians around” and in the North Atlantic during the Cold War. He also went into dentistry.

He moved around with his wife and three kids often, answering the call of the military. Since 1990, Lessman has lived in Cape Girardeau, where he has a downtown dentistry practice.

Lessman continues to serve his country as an admissions officer for the Naval Academy, interviewing and advising young people during the admissions process and presenting their acceptance to the academy.

Lessman says he advises applicants with the idea they live in “the best place in the world” and everyone should do their part to give back in whatever way they can.

“When we join the military, man, woman, teenager, most of us do it just out of respect for our country, willing to do what we need to do to keep us safe, keep us free, but not expecting to be honored or remembered,” Lessman says.

Another Quilt of Valor recipient and Oak Ridge resident, Terry Simms, says receiving his quilt meant everything to him.

“It meant that people actually care and appreciate what we do and what we did,” Simms says.

Simms served in the United States Navy from 1982 to 1990. Following his service, he moved around the country, met his wife and started work at a mental health care facility, where he worked until Aug. 1.

Simms received his Quilt of Valor four years ago, and he says the knowledge people actually care about veterans was rewarding.

“Appreciate the veterans, show them love, show them that you are behind them, with them, beside them,” Simms says. “Recognition, it goes a long way.”

Remembering and honoring veterans is what Green says the Quilts of Valor program is all about.

“The quilts themselves are to remind the veterans that they’re forever in the thoughts of whoever made the quilt, as well as giving comfort and warmth,” Green says.

When asked if he would go through his service all over again, Simms’ response is prompt and simple: “Heck yeah, in a New York minute.”