Grati-Tuesday 29th December 2020

Hello Friends,

Hope you are all having a wonderful week and getting ready to welcome in the new year soon to arrive.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy these beauties.

All the best for the rest of 2020. Alex

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Dear Marianne and WPH Ladies,

Thank you very much for your kind words and wonderful quilt. The embroidery is excellent and the quilt is very beautiful. I'm sure it will offer me a lot of comfort while I am away from my home and family.

I'm very grateful that you have taken the time and effort to show your appreciation for deployed Defence members. I'm very glad and proud to be over here on behalf of Australian's, it is still really amazing to have someone give a lovely gift and letter and offer their support and thanks.

Thank you again for the quilt, in particular Sheena and Inge, I'm so impressed with the embroidery. 

Yours truly.

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Dear Sue,

Thank you so very much for my quilt.

It far exceeds any expectations I had and is very much appreciated. 

It is nice to know that complete strangers care about my wellbeing.

Thank you

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Dear ladies of the Crib Point Community House inc,

I am so grateful to receive a laundry bag from you whilst deployed in the Middle East. I love the jungle theme and it looks very different to everyone else's bag, so I won't lose it. :)

This is my eight deployment but my first laundry bag made by hand.

Thank you

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Good Morning Heather,

I am the very happy and thankful recipient of your beautifully made quilt. I love the laundry bag, love the use of my Corps colours and the Australian Flag. Thank you so much! You have certainly made my days and now my room, brighter!

Thank you for introducing yourself to me, it is great to hear how much this initiative resonates with you. You have such a rich connection with the ADF and I hope what we do make you proud. I am very thankful for those that have served before me and I thank your family for their contributions to keeping our way of life Australian. I hope to continue to honour this legacy.

I am now in my 12th year of service to the ADF and have loved my career thus far.

As you would have gathered, I am part of the Corps of the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and am I am employed as an Electronics Systems Technician. I have specialised as Biomedical Technician and also an Electronic Countermeasures maintainer. These specialities are the crux of what I do within the Middle East, enabling and supporting clinicians and various other personnel in carrying out their roles safely and effectively.

I live in Queensland. I am husband to a beautiful wife of almost 7 years. My wife is an accomplished veterinarian nurse. We have two sons, aged 4 and 2, and we are expecting the birth of our daughter early next year. I unfortunately, will miss the birth.

Thank you once more for your very kind gift of the quilt and laundry bag.

Stay safe and talk to you soon.

Kind regards 

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Dear Shirley,

What can I say, the quilt is amazing. When I listed what I thought I might like on the quilt I never imagined what you created. I love it and it is sitting centre on my bed here in the Middle East. I have since seen another of your work for a quilt you made for one of my colleagues who happens to work two desks over in the Head quarters.

Thanks for your letter.

I have been mostly posted to the NSW region for the last 28 years with Navy. It has treated me well and given me many opportunities to see and experience everything that I could never have imagined as a country boy. I have travelled all over the South Pacific, South East Asia, Hawaii and now the Middle East (though with COVID restrictions, I haven't see much besides camp and limited visits to a few shopping centres).

My family live in NSW. My wife is working part time in sales. However, she is a beauty therapist by trade and would love to get back into that. My eldest twin boy still lives at home and is working in engineering company, I think he will return to University next year to continue his engineering degree. My other twin daughter, lives in NSW and works in childcare. Our youngest is still in school and just finished year 11.

I hopefully will get to travel to my dad's 70th early next year. I love visiting and I do miss the river and bush, it always feels like home. I leave here early next year.

Take care and hopefully Santa is good to you.

Regards.

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Hi Jan-Maree,

I would like to thank you and the ladies who have made and donated laundry bags to the ADF personnel conducting WA COVID assist.

The members in the photo are from Queensland and Air Force are from all around Australia.

Some of our RAAF members will be conducting COVID Assist for over 3 months including Christmas Day and New Years Day, so this present is truly appreciated.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you very much.

Your Sincerely,

P.S. everyone in the photo had their own laundry bag given to them.

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Dear Catherine, 

Just letting you know that my husbands Aussie Hero Quilt has arrived safe and sound.

Sadly I’m interstate and won’t get to see my husband reaction when he opens it. Thank you to you and you fabulous team once again for being able to make this possible. A beautiful way to thank our loved ones for their service. 

Will forward a photo when he is given the quilt by our daughter. 

Kind Regards

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Good Morning, 

I wanted to let you know that the quilt has arrived. Thank you so much for the time and effort put into it by everyone involved.

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Dear Jan-Maree,

This is to thank you and your team for the quilt and accompanying letter I received a few weeks ago. It was presented by W01 who came up accompanied by his wife.

As I am currently President of this RSL, it was presented in front of members, it also made the event that little more service touch, than it would have at home. I served in the RAN for 12 years having joined at the magnificent age of 16 years old in 1958. I did an apprenticeship with them and have never regretted my service.

Had they left me on destroyers instead of aircraft carriers I would have been in for a long time. Once a destroyer man, always a destroyer man. There are some amazing persons and groups in Australia, and yours is, to me, among the best as it gives service personnel some recognition not readily available in Australia outside of ANZAC Day. I am finding the older one gets, the more important that our time spent in the service becomes particularly as we start to lose our mates who we joined up with and/or served with. I also have a grandson who has spent the last 13 years in the Navy and is still in. This makes my wife and I very proud.

I have contacted Diane to thank her. I would also ask that you thank Kerri for me, for her work in this as well please.

Once again, I thank you and your group for your thoughts and your efforts.

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Hello Pat,

My thanks to you for this outstanding gift. I am glad you accepted the challenge to design and sew my quilt; it is fantastic. You have done yourself proud with your work; it is more than I could have expected. I have used it all this week and not only does it keep me warm (the aircon works extremely well here), it brightens up my room with all the colour. This will be a great reminder of the many deployments I have been on over the years. This is my forth this region. 

I read your letter. Let's hope this summer the fire season is significantly quieter to last year; the smoke was choking and impacted all of us. The lockdowns earlier this year were another hit to Australia but it seems we have survived it well. I hope you and your extended family have remained safe and continue to do so.

I am normally based/work in ACT having deployed to the Middle East a few months ago. I expect to return back there mid next year after returning to Australia and taking some leave. I am due to leave the Air Force in the next two years and look forward to living permanently in QLD where my partner and I have a home. She loves it and won't ever leave.

My sincere thanks to you for your efforts and hard work. I wish you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Let's hope 2021 is a far better time with a positive outlook for us all.

Cheers.

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Dear Toni,

I cannot thank you enough for the time and care you have shown me and many others for the beautiful laundry bags received. I absolutely love mine! Thank you also for your letter it was nice to know more about you.

You are an incredible and giving individual and the world is brighter for having people like you in it.

I thought I would also share a bit about me. I am married I met my husband over 15 years ago, when I joined the Army. He was a cook, and I was a clerk.

In 2006, we deployed to the South East Asia, and I saw the great work of my Medical Team there. I had finished my Nursing degree and decided to transfer to the Air Force as a Nurse.

We have 2 beautiful children aged 8 and 6. My husband has done an amazing job taking care of our kids while I have been away.

I realise now it really is the partners and families at home that make the sacrifices to enable us to do our jobs here.

I hope you are keeping safe and the covid clusters remain controlled.

Thank you again, and Merry Christmas.

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Good Afternoon Catherine

I received my Aussie Quilt today safe and sound Beverley. I love it, it's an excellent quilt and I appreciate all the work the Aussie Hero Quilt ladies do for our deployed forces.

Thank you

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Hi Catherine,

I've received my quilt and laundry bag and written a letter back to Ellen.

I love them. Thank you so much. The work done by people who make the quilts is highly appreciated by the members here. It's nice to know that people at home are thinking about us while we are away.

Kind Regards.

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Hi Beverly,

I just wanted to pass on my sincere thank you for the fantastic quilt that arrived here in the Middle East for me.

I was expecting something good but was incredibly impressed with it.

It will serve me well over here. 

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Dear Kate,

I cannot thank you enough for the amazing quilt. 

It is everything and way more than I could have imagined. Since I received it, I have been using it every night to keep me warm. Who would have thought the desert could get so cold. Everyone who sees it also loves it, and the fine detail is amazing.

I managed to get a photo of the quilt sent home and my 2 kids and hubby both cannot wait to see it in person.

Thank you once again for this amazing quilt, my family will treasure it forever. 

Thanks