For over forty years, community members from Waldo County have met to slowly and carefully create a traditional quilt, a handmade item to last a lifetime.

Over the last forty years, quilts have been given for either comfort or fundraising. This year, a quilt has been donated to the Hospice volunteers of Waldo County, and tickets for this traditional quilt are now for sale for $5 each at Vinolio's tasting room and specialty food shop at 74 Main Street in downtown Belfast.

Tickets will also be sold at the Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County's free annual community Tea Party on Sunday, April 26, starting at 1 p.m., ending with the quilt drawing at 4 p.m., at the Belfast Boat House. Home-made scones and freshly brewed tea will be provided at no cost. Organic seedlings and a bake sale will be held during the same event.

In initiating the Friendship Sampler Quilt Guild in Belfast in 1985, members chose to adopt the State Guild's purposes of engaging in fellowship, sharing ideas, supporting community, while helping raise the status of quilting in Maine. Their goals also include education and demonstration.

At first, the eight women met at each other’s homes. But eventually the group moved to St. Francis of Assisi, where they meet on the first and third Thursday of the month to this day. Currently, there are 26 members.

Each completed quilt is then donated to a community organization or to an emergency need. There have been donations to the American Heart Association, Hurricane Andrew relief in Miami, for fuel assistance in Waldo County, New Hope for Women, the Humane Society, the Belfast Free Library’s 100th birthday, and the Bayside Historical Society. The group even responded to a plea and sent 10 quilts to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

They have also given wheelchair quilts to two local nursing homes and dignity quilts to cover the recently deceased as they are moved.

This year, they are pleased to donate another quilt for raffle to benefit the Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County.

Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing compassionate support for individuals and families facing end-of-life challenges. Through education, companionship, and bereavement services, they ensure that no one faces this journey alone. To learn more or to get involved, visit hospicevolunteersofwaldocounty.org.

For more information about this event, please contact Flic Shooter, Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County, waldohospicevolunteers@gmail.com or 207 505 4434.