I've been hearing information about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for some time and now --- the 52-quilt nationally touring quilts about Alzheimer's and the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project with donated quilts auctioned and sold to raise money for research. In just a little over a year and a half quilters across this country (and overseas) have used their talents to raise over $82,000 for research!
Now, there is a movement afoot to get these quilts, big and little, on the Oprah Winfrey show! Wouldn't that be terrific? I've written my email in support of this effort because I think the exposure would be fantastic for raising awareness and for raising even more money for Alzheimer's research. Click HERE to help get the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative on Oprah.
We need lots of emails...don't leave this to someone else, you can make a difference with just one email. (OK, maybe two or three...) Oprah's people track every single email they get, and each of us needs to let them know that we want to see the Alzheimer's quilts on Oprah's show. We want to celebrate the efforts of quilters making a difference. We want people with Alzheimer's and their loved ones know that we care and we're doing what we can to help.
I know many of you are making Priority: Alzheimer's quilts for Ami Simms to auction or sell. Tell the producers why this is important to you. If you've attended the "Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece" quilt exhibit, share with them how moving it was. If you've purchased the book or CD, let them know that you are supporting research because all the profits for these items are donated to research. Tell them to visit the website at www.AlzQuilts.org, and tell them to call Ami Simms at 1-800-278-4824 to arrange for the quilts to be on Oprah.
Another thought: If you haven't comsidered of making a quilt for this worth while project, maybe now is the time to do it!
Bonnie
4 comments:
Thanks, Bonnie ~ I just registered my 25th Priority Quilt... through the efforts of so many individual quilters, a real difference IS being made!
HI Bonnie,
I did send off a letter to Oprah's show site and I hope that many others will do the same. I have ordered Ami's book and am waiting for it come in the mail. It is such an important cause and touches many people's lives. Thank you for sharing this idea with other bloggers.
Regards from a Western Canadian quilter,
Anna
Hey Bonnie!!!
I just sent a letter to Oprah about the Alzheimers Exhibit. Great idea!! MY grandmother is in a nursing home now and has Alzheimers.. My mom and I( pieced ,longarmed quilted) a quilt to be raffled off at the nursing homes Alzheimer fundraising event
coming up soon.
A friend of mine told me about your blog. Glad to have found you!!
To Quilt – to stitch together” --as defined by dictionary.com
Quilting a memory is stitching together the past and present. It is a tactile experience in which you create and truly touch the life of a loved one. A quilt gives the creator a chance to put on permanent display a life, to celebrate a life, to speak for those who can no longer speak for themselves. A quilt is a stitched together voice.
It is these memories of past and present that are being captured in a powerful initiative called the Alzheimer's Foundation of America Quilt to Remember. The AFA Quilt to Remember marks the nation’s first, grand-scale dementia-related quilt, and consists of massive panels contributed by individuals and organizations to memorialize or honor those who have passed or are living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as to pay tribute to caregivers and healthcare professionals.
Evoking creativity and emotion, the AFA Quilt to Remember has been taken on tour to major cities in 2007 and is about to travel again in 2008 to other cities across the nation.
We encourage you to be a part of this heartfelt project:
Get involved by crafting a quilt panel. We will be accepting panels on an ongoing basis; this project will continue to grow in size with the generous contributions of individuals and organizations. Anyone can donate a quilt panel to the AFA Quilt to Remember. The perfection of each panel is the life it celebrates and not its design. (should we include that latter part of sentence if the blogs are mostly to quilters?)
All quilt panels that are contributed to the AFA Quilt to Remember become part of the permanent collection and are not sold; rather, they are placed on display to be shared with others.
Get involved by visiting the AFA Quilt to Remember…and spreading the word. Feel the lives that are evoked in these panels as they are exhibited in city after city for years to come.
To learn more, visit us at www.alzquilt.org or call 866-AFA-8484.
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