Community Service
Since 1988 Block Party members have been making quilts for children and their families who are staying at the Ronald McDonald House while being treated at Seattle Children’s Hospital. In that time BPQ members have donated thousands of quilts and our art quilts are proudly displayed on the public walls of each house.
Guild member Linda Hunnell and her team of volunteers work all year to create holiday stockings for children staying at RMH. Originally, she recruited BPQ members of the two small groups she belonged to. They stepped up to the challenge and made eighty stockings that first year and her current volunteer group now makes 105 per year.
BPQ supplies the funds for the polar fleece cuffs and the lining of the stockings but fabric for the main part of the stockings has always been donated by members and the community. Linda gladly accepts donations of non-religious, cheerful holiday fabric.
Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland is another organization that receives our quilts. Members created red, white and blue star blocks that were combined to make twenty-five Quilts of Valor. They were gifted prior to Veteran’s Day in 2022. The staff at Evergreen will award these quilts to veterans in their care.
In Issaquah, Eastside Baby Corner has been our primary donation site. Their name is changing to KidVantage to better reflect their organization’s focus on kids from birth to age 12.
BPQ's Charity Team is open to all members. Join us by making quilts for donation and/or attending workshops and meetings announced in the BPQ newsletter. Quilt kits provided to members are made possible through fabric donations from guild members and the community.
BPQ's Big Hearts Charity does accept and appreciate fabric donations. We can be reached at charity@blockpartyquilters.org.
This is from a mother of a boy who received a BPQ Quilt 13 years ago:
"13 years ago my son, Ed, had surgery on his kidneys at Children's Hospital. He treasured this gift we got from Ronald McDonald House. It never occurred to me to check to see who donated it - until a friend just asked me about it today. Thank you so much. My baby was 11 months old when he went in for his 2nd surgery. I cuddled this blanket while he was in surgery, once he came out of surgery - and I saw he was ok - I collapsed and was rushed to a different hospital with a gallstone stuck in my bile duct and severe pancreatitis as a result. I was hospitalized away from my son for 2 weeks - all while he recovered. But I had put all my love and hugs into that blanket. And he held onto that blanket in the hospital until I was able to hug him again. He is almost 14, and a healthy and active teenager who loves being on the wrestling team, anything STEM and running long distances."
