The ladies of Little Cedar and Marshall Lutheran Churches have created handmade quilts to donate to Lutheran World Relief for more than half a century.

This year, ladies from the churches created 72 handmade quilts for Lutheran World Relief.

Many of the ladies have made quilts for several decades.

“My mother [Ella Himebaugh] made them and there were ladies before her that made them,” said Judy Hanson of Marshall Lutheran Church in a press release. “I remember going to circle with my mother and they would be making these quilts. That was when they used a quilting frame so it took a lot longer than it does today, so they made about twenty quilts a year.”

In addition to the quilts, church members donated 38 school kits, 10 personal care kits, five fabric kits and 19 baby kits.

“I am constantly amazed at the amount of work these ladies do every year for this mission project,” said Kathy Voigt, a member of Marshall and staff member at Little Cedar, in a press release. “They are living examples of what it means to care for our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Lutheran World Relief was founded after World War II left an estimated one-fifth of the world’s Lutherans homeless. In the United States, Lutheran churches in at least 20 states mobilized to help in Europe through an agency called Lutheran World Relief. Initially prompted by sending aid to German and Scandinavian kin, American Lutherans soon realized that aid could be shared fairly only on the basis of need. Hungry refugees all over Europe needed help, according to Lutheran World Relief.

The group provides many services around the globe where it works to find long-term solutions to poverty and help communities cope with and recover from poverty. Among these services is Quilts & Kits, a program that Little Cedar and Marshall Lutheran Churches strongly support. The quilting program is one of the oldest Lutheran World Relief ministries that began in the mid-1940s and the Adams community, and many others in the area, have been a part of the quilting program since the beginning.

For more information about the Lutheran World Relief programs and ways to help, contact Little Cedar and Marshall Lutheran Churches at 507-582-3185.