On Saturday, Nov. 3, an enthusiastic group of quilters from three local guilds joined Rotarians at the Rotary Clubhouse to produce hand made quilts for Wrap-A-Smile.  It was a day of shared purpose, friendship and community collaboration to create quilts for children undergoing cleft lip and cleft palate repair. 

Many of the quilters also brought finished quilts to donate to Wrap-A-Smile, the comfort quilt program started 17 years ago by Terry Hodskins of the Wells Rotary Club.  With the number of quilts produced from the Quiltathon, and another 15 quilts donated by quilters from the Boothbay Community Center, Wrap-A-Smile has now shared over 25,000 (yes, twenty five thousand!) quilts worldwide.  As a visual, 25,000 quilts would cover 7 football fields, quite an amazing statement by the many generous quilters from all over the country who donate to Wrap-A-Smile. 

The name Wrap-A-Smile comes from the idea that a child is wrapped in the comfort of a quilt on the day that they receive their new smile, thanks to volunteer medical teams who perform the cleft lip and cleft palate repair.  The quilts cover the child on the operating table, comfort them in the recovery room, and are then taken home as a reminder of the day their future became brighter.  

The consensus at the end of Saturday’s event was “we need to do this again”!  Anyone interested in helping with this project should contact Ann Demeranville at quilts7780@gmail.com.  Wrap-A-Smile appreciates that all of the quilts are generously donated by the quilters, however it costs approximately $250 for every 100 quilts to get them delivered to the medical teams.  Tax-deductible donations for shipping costs are gratefully accepted.