Quilts, quilts, and more quilts ... just how many can you vacuum pack and ship in a 20-inch cube box?

Rotarians and friends of Wrap-A-Smile met Saturday morning at the Rotary clubhouse to pack and ship 200 comfort quilts to Rotaplast in San Francisco, an organization that sends volunteer medical teams around the world to perform cleft lip and cleft palate repair for children. Terry Hodskins of the Rotary Club of Wells founded W.A.S. 17 years ago, with the inspiration that these babies and children needed to be wrapped in the comfort of a quilt on the day their lives were changed forever. To date, over 24,500 quilts have been shared in 46 different countries. There is quite a trick to the packing process and Terry came for a training session.

Quilters and non-quilters alike learned how to shrink the air out of the quilts to maximize the number in a box. (By the way, the maximum number is 52, no small feat for a 20 x 20 x 20 inch cube.) Ann Demeranville of the Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club has recently taken over management of the Wrap-A-Smile program. Ann and her husband Steve participated in a Rotaplast mission to Togo, West Africa, in 2011. During that mission
they saw the value of the quilts which cover the babies on the operating table, go with them to the recovery room, and then get taken home as a memory of the day their smiles were restored.

Quilts are sewn and donated by quilters from all over the country, including from Kwiltz 4 Kids and from the Community Center here in Boothbay Harbor. Labels are attached with help from the Friday morning sewing group at the CC. After shrink-wrapping, the quilts get shipped to accompany the medical teams. These gifts of love often mean as much to the quilters who made them as to the babies who get cuddled by them.

If you would like to help with this international goodwill project please contact Ann Demeranville at quilts7780@gmail.com.