Many Union City and West New York women learned how to quilt for the first time last month as part of a quilting bee held in Caldwell, N.J. The women, members of The Relief Society, the women’s organization of The Church of Latter-day Saints, joined other women from New Jersey and Rockland County to make 50 quilts for infants and young children.
This project helped to restock supplies that in the past have been sent from Salt Lake City to famine victims in Ethiopia, earthquake victims in Turkey and refugees in Kosovo.
The Church of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, has worldwide humanitarian resources. They include a humanitarian center that serves as a collection point for clothing, quilts and medical and educational supplies to be sorted and distributed; the Humanitarian Fund; Deseret Industries Thrift Stores that help people find work and provide job training, and thousands of full-time volunteers. The Mormon Church has been doing missions in this area for several years in order to bring area residents to the church.
Members and supporters in both Union City and West New York meet in the church building on 26th Street and New York Avenue in Union City.
It’s so easy
For many of the women who attended the quilting bee, it was their first time using a needle.
“I thought, I can’t do that,” said Hoboken resident Maria Gehrke about when she was first handed a needle. “I am retired now, but my profession wasn’t making quilts.”
Emilia Alonzo, the president of the Union City Ward’s Relief Society, said that the women started working at 9 a.m. and went home at 11:30 a.m.
“It was not complicated,” said Alonzo, who had only put together a quilt once before. “It was very simple.” Each table had two people working on one quilt; however, other members of the church who were more skilled were on hand to help.
“If someone needed help, there was always another [person] there to help them,” said Alonzo.
Working together
The Relief Society is an auxiliary organization within the church for women in the church who are 18 years old and older. The society meets monthly and works on teaching women how to be better sisters of the church, as well as better daughters, wives and mothers.
“We enjoy doing these kinds of projects,” said Alonzo. “Then we are all working together.”
Besides quilting, the women have workshops in many different areas such as cooking, sewing and home decorating.
“It is a church to learn,” said Gehrke who was in the middle of baking a cake for a wedding taking place in the church last weekend. “When the church has [an event] that is different, it is always interesting.”