Hi! I’m Sandi Prejean, mother of 3 daughters and a son. Two of my daughters are quilters and QOV members. My son is a Marine Vet and QOV recipient. My husband, Jon, is a QOV member as well as a Marine Vet/ QOV recipient. QOV is truly a family project.
I’ve been involved in QOV since 2021, mainly due to Hurricane Ida. Our community suffered significant damage. Fortunately, personally we had minimal damage. A local Marine Vet spent a month living with us. He is a two-time Purple Heart Vet and perfect house guest. A decision to honor him with a QOV led to a QOV presentation to 4 additional Purple Heart Vets. And the rest is history.
Our local group, S. Louisiana Quilters is sort of unique. Once we formed our group we found out there were only a couple of members who know how to sew much less quilt. We are fortunate that we are now partnered with two local quilting groups. Our group makes kits and the quilting groups do the sewing. We have volunteers who do our long arming and binding. Our group does the cutting, washing, tagging and actual Veteran presentations. Our quilt makers are acknowledged for their contributions on the tags. We present QOV for our local Veterans through our Vet Groups, hospital, Woodmenlife and a yearly Veterans group. We are quite active in our area of S. Louisiana. One of my greatest pleasures is presenting QOV to Veterans I know and to my former students. Presentations have been made to two Vets who are over 100 years old!