The Community Foundation of White County is pleased to award Monticello Quilts of Valor with a $1,000 Leslie Grant, the first recipient under this new funding opportunity.
Quilts of Valor is a national nonprofit organization, for which members make quilts to award to veterans that have been touched by war. Last year, over 37,333 quilts were awarded. Now coming to uplift the local community, Monticello Quilts of Valor creates high quality quilts that tells our veterans, “Thank you for your service, sacrifice, and valor in serving our nation.”
This $1,000 grant will help with the creation of approximately three quilts to be awarded to local veterans nominated by friends, veterans, or family members. Monticello Quilts of Valor currently serves the community with ten volunteers making quilts, and they are eager to expand their mission and impact throughout the area. For folks interested in supporting this important work, contact Group Leader Susie Alpha at bsalpha1@pwrtc.com.
Susie shared about the new program, “We feel so honored to have received the first Leslie Grant—it’s too perfect, because Leslie taught most of us to sew! But we need help spreading our mission into the community. If you know a veteran that has been touched by war, you can nominate them on the Quilts of Valor website: www.qovf.org.”
Only recently retiring in 2022 after 18 years of leading the Foundation, Executive Director Emeritus Leslie Wineland Goss is the inspiration for the Leslie Grants. To reflect Leslie’s petite but powerful nature, Leslie Grants provide an opportunity for nonprofits to access smaller grant awards that still make a great impact in the community. These “small but mighty” grants are awarded in honor of Leslie and her commitment to strengthening and transforming White County.
Serving others through the artistry of sewing, it’s only appropriate that Monticello Quilts of Valor is the first ever recipient of a Leslie Grant. Leslie’s history of serving her community extends beyond her leadership at the Community Foundation: in 1976, Leslie opened her own quilting and needlework shop called Needles in the Haystack where she taught classes for 22 years.
Leslie shared, “As someone who grew up with outstanding and beautiful family heirloom quilts in my parents' home and owned a quilting and needlework shop for twenty years, it is a unique honor to present this check to a local quilting group doing such special work. Our veterans deserve all the gratitude and honor we can ever give them, and these quilts will be a tangible reminder of our warmth and love. I offer my sincere thanks to our veterans, these dedicated quilters, and to community donors who make these Leslie Grants possible. I am humbled.”
Leslie Grants are available to nonprofit organizations seeking requests up to $1,000 all year, any time, until the cycle closes on November 1st, or until the allocated funds are depleted.
Leslie Grants are made possible through unrestricted donations to the Foundation from everyday people who care about White County. Whether large or small, these “use where they will best serve” gifts allow the Foundation to offer grant opportunities to strengthen the social, cultural, educational, economic, and physical well-being of White County.
Learn more about Leslie Grants and how to support your White County community by logging onto www.cfwhitecounty.org, or reach out to Director, Lucy Dold at (574) 583-6911.