Approximately 40 sewers gathered on November 1, 2014 in the Parish Center at St. Lawrence Church in North Greece to sew lap robes for veterans.
The project was hosted by the Greece Rotary and grew out of Greece Rotarian Kim Masiello’s idea. “Nancy Van Apeldoorn spoke at our club meeting. In past years we have donated money to her Lap Robes for Veterans organization, and also to Honor Flight. I was looking for a “hands on” project that would involve the entire Greece community. Since I have many friends that sew, I thought this year, in addition to donating money, let’s donate our time sewing the lap robes,” Kim said.
The stitching event included volunteers from many community groups including Lap Robes for Veterans, The Rotary Club of Greece, Greece Athena High School and various members of the Greece community.
Nancy Van Apeldoorn founded the Lap Robes for Veterans group. They started out as two members and grew to over 50 sewers. Their motto is “So many veterans, sew little time.” In the past 8 years the group has made and delivered over 3,000 lap robes to veterans who are participating in the Honor Flight Program. Volunteers meet the veterans at the airport when they are returning home from Washington, D.C., welcome them home and hand out the lap robes.
Lap robes are small, quilted blankets used to cover the lap and legs. The patterns on the fabrics are geared to specific branches of the service, and/or have a patriotic theme. The process to create a lap robe has nine steps, all steps are completed assembly line style, by groups working as “crews.” Volunteers completed over 50 lap robes on November 1st. These lap robes will be presented to local veterans this Spring at the Rochester International Airport when the veterans return home from their Honor Flight trip to D.C.
The Rotary Club of Greece would like to thank St. Lawrence Church for the use of their facility and Martusciello’s Bakery on Lyell Avenue for providing lunch.
Photos by Tom Parsons
