Wall hangings bring colors of hope

Uh-oh: One day, back in 2022, Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) was running low on wall hangings—a treasured gift from MDS to homeowners given during home dedications. So, Becky Koller got the word out quickly.

“I went through my email list of quilters who had ever donated or showed any interest in wall hangings, and sent an email out saying that we were low,” said Koller, who coordinated the program through September 2023, at which time it was centralized in the Lititz office. “Within minutes of sending the email, my email lit up with notes from quilters with messages.”

The messages read:

“Oh, thank you so much for this reminder.”

“Wonderful! I have several on my shelf that I forgotten about.”

“Please send me a dozen labels. I have several ready to go and I’ll nudge my quilter friends to get some completed.”

She also received a message from one man who replied to her request for wall hangings. “He told me how his wife had passed away, but he wanted me to know how much she enjoyed having a way to donate to MDS—even though her health didn’t allow her to go to projects.”

Koller saw firsthand that stitching wall hangings is a valuable way for people who are unable to go to projects for various reasons to have a way to contribute. “During the years I coordinated that project, I found that for some women it was a very important gift to put together,” she said.

She also began calling her contributors “quilters” instead of “women.” Throughout her time as the coordinator of the program, she had one man who faithfully contributed a wall hanging. “I never learned his name,” said Koller “When I received a box of wall hangings from one church, the woman who sent them, always noted which one was done by the very talented gentleman in their congregation.”

As she looks back on her years of coordinating the wall hanging program, she still thinks of the many colors of hope.

“I found it to be such a blessing to have so many quilters working in the background stitching those wall hangings,” she said.

To learn more about the MDS Housewarmer Project, visit https://mds.org/housewarmer-project/