We need more help.... please share.....

Sigh, I was hoping I would not have to write this post but needs must. 

I have always run Aussie Heroes on the philosophy that we can only do so much and whatever we are doing today is more than was being done before. 

BEFORE

Do you realise we are the ONLY organisation WORLD WIDE that does what we do?  No other country has an organisation that supports their deployed men and women with hand made quilts and laundry bags.  We make our troops feel special and we are making a difference to how they cope with their deployment and, to some extent, to how they cope when they come home. 

AFTER

Up until now we have always been able to find a way to keep up with the requests that have come in, as well as sorting a few special requests along the way like the chapel quilts we did for Kabul last year and the ANZAC themed quilt we did for the ANZAC Hospital in Iraq. We have another couple of special quilts that will be announced shortly..... basically as soon as I get time to put the post together... but they will likely be the last special ones we can do for a bit.... which makes me sad but it can't be helped.   This does not include the Fallen Warrior Quilts and Wounded Warrior Quilts that we do. NOTHING will stop us from providing those when asked and when it is appropriate to offer.

Our priority is to get quilts to those who are deployed. It has taken five years and one house fire for us to reach the point where the requests have become difficult to manage.   We are almost keeping up... but not quite. 

Over time our organisation has become better known and that has increased the number of requests. In addition, all the publicity from the house fire increased awareness of us and that led to more requests. 

The fire also put us behind schedule as I had to take my eye off the ball for several weeks in addition to losing some of the fat in the system... losing lots of completed quilts and around 50 or so quilt tops. We are slowly rebuilding but not as quickly as I would like.  

Over the coming months I will be making some changes, some will be visible and some, for operational reasons, will likely not be obvious on the blog. 

I will be simplifying some of the requests but please understand that whilst some of you find the complicated requests overwhelming I have other quilters who relish the challenge.  If you like the simple requests then focus on them and ignore the more difficult ones.  You are never expected to do more than you are comfortable with.

So, how can you help.... 

Firstly, I would love to see these three quilts taken up by volunteers. I have stretched my local girls as much as I can and pulled in a few favours from others......  I can't ask them to do more.

These quilts need to be in the mail by the end of March.  If you can do an Aussie flag quilt without the dirt bikes or the mountain bikes then that is just fine. 

If you can do a maroon and gold quilt that is just fine, in fact, that would be wonderful.  

Aussie Flag,  OR Dirt Bikes	M	Q	3
Aussie flag, OR mountain biking	M	B	4
Queensland Maroons - I have the logos I can send you express post so this just needs to be a maroon and gold quilt	M	B	6

The second way you can help is to spread the word... share the post... tell your quilting buddies.  I speak to all sorts of different groups and organisations about Aussie Heroes all the time. I tell people that you never know who will listen and who will want to get involved.  It is the same if you share the word.  You may think that it leads to nothing but you just don't know.

If you have been sitting on the fence thinking about making an Aussie Hero quilt then this is the time to get involved and lend a hand.   I really do not think you will regret it.

True, you will not hear back from every quilt or laundry bag you send off but if you read the gratitude post you will soon see that what we do is definitely appreciated. Please remember that often the recipients are operating in difficult circumstances... one young fellow wrote that he had had 4 hours sleep in 30 hours!! Sometimes operations are like that!  He used some of his precious break time... before he went back to work again... to send us a thank you.   I bet there are lots of you who would not have done that.  Reading the blog however, in my opinion, makes up for the ones that we do not receive. Last night on Instagram a wife left a stunningly beautiful thank you message for the quilt that her husband received.   

So, please, help me out, help our troops out and spread the word as much as you can and hopefully we will get just a few more quilters so that we can spread the load just a little more and make sure that no-one, NO-ONE misses out on receiving their quilt or bag whilst they are deployed.

Till next time..... PLEASE KEEP SPREADING THE WORD....keep spreading the word and happy stitching!

Jan-Maree  xx