Guild distributes quilts made to spread love to Tumbler Ridge

TUMBLER RIDGE, B.C. — Quilts made from around British Columbia to shown love to Tumbler Ridge community members in the aftermath of February’s mass shooting are being distributed.

The attacks on February 10th on Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and a local residence left nine people, including the assailant, dead.

A member of the Tumbler Ridge Rippers Quilt Guild and former teacher, Sandra Milne, was like many in the small mining community who expressed shock over the horrific event.

“Even though they were not necessarily students I knew, it still hit close to home,” said Milne. “It could happen to any school in the province.”

Milne said Heather Fagervik of Kamloops shop Heather’s Fabric Shelf organized a quilting drive in the wake of the tragedy in February, according to a story from CBC.

The guild was contacted to distribute the quilts to members of the community, including entries from the Okanagan, Vancouver Island and the Kootenays.

In total, Milne estimates around 1,600 quilts were sent to the community, with the local Tumbler Ridge Search and Rescue doubling as a storage unit and the Tumbler Ridge Inn providing 24-hour receiving services.

 “We have received directions from the people who donated them saying, ‘we’d like them to go to first responders. We’d like them to go to the RCMP,’” said Milne. “We worked with the town and compiled a list of who should be receiving quilts and what order, and have been working our way through that.”

Known as comfort quilts, Milne described them as a garment meant to “represent wrapping the recipient in love.”

They have distributed around 1,300 quilts – of which no two are identical – to RCMP units, search and rescue and first responders. This week, they distributed quilts to students of both Tumbler Ridge elementary and secondary schools.

“There are some typical designs which are considered patchwork,” said Milne. “But there are other ones that the quilter has made a whole pattern from it….It was very rewarding for us. We got to see every quilt as we pulled it out and processed it.

“We had our favourites, but it was really interesting to see a teenager’s favourite.”

While the guild has already distributed quilts to students enrolled at Tumbler Ridge schools, next week they will be distributed to children who are homeschooled.

The distributions take place on Tuesday, April 7th and Thursday, April 9th at Tumbler Ridge Search and Rescue at 115 Commercial Park in Tumbler Ridge.