VALDOSTA, Ga. – On Tuesday, 95-year-old Sergeant Owen Youles received the hand-sewn Quilt of Valor.

The Quilt of Valor Foundation started in 2003 when founder Catherine Robert’s son was deployed and according to Catherine:

The dream was as vivid as real life. I saw a young man sitting on the side of his bed in the middle of the night, hunched over. The permeating feeling was one of utter despair. I could see his war demons clustered around, dragging him down into an emotional gutter. Then, as if viewing a movie, I saw him in the next scene wrapped in a quilt. His whole demeanor changed from one of despair to one of hope and wellbeing. The quilt had made this dramatic change. The message of my dream was: 

Quilts = Healing 

The model appeared simple: have a volunteer team who would donate their time and materials to make a quilt. One person would piece the top and the other would quilt it. I saw the name for this special quilt. It was a Quilt of Valor, a QOV.

The organization has gifted a total of 246,625 quilts with 4,140 being award in 2020 alone.