Quilt For A Cause News

Once again…..Quilt for a Cause, Inc. has done it.  A whopping $113,000 was raised from donations, grants, and the sale of 284 beautiful quilts at their Silent/Live Auction held at the Tucson Medical Center on Saturday, October 3, 2009.  Although more than 600 quilters participated from 30 States and 3 Provinces of Canada, 90% of the quilts were donated by members of the Tucson Quilter’s Guild.

The proceeds from this year’s Auction were distributed between the Tucson Medical Center Foundation and St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary Clinic.  The Tucson Medical Center will be using a part of their portion to fund the Joel Childers Teaching Series ($35,000) for training OB/GYN doctors from around the country on the latest surgical procedures.  Another $10,000 will be spent on breast cancer screening for uninsured and underinsured women.  The remaining $46,000 will be spent on updating or purchasing equipment for TMC’s GYN state of the art surgical center.  St. Elizabeth’s of Hungary Clinic will be using their portion towards helping their patients with breast cancer procedures.

Over the past 6 years, three quilt auctions have taken place at TMC and more than a quarter of a million dollars have been raised for women’s cancers within the Tucson area.  The success of these auctions could not have been successful without the generousity of everyone involved.

Meander the hallways of Tucson Medical Center and enjoy over 200 gorgeous quilts and wall hangings.  Make a bid on the ones that you like and you just might be the highest bidder.   Pay the Buy Me Now price and IT IS YOURS.  The Silent Auction runs through the month of September ending at 11 a.m. on October 3. 

A Live Auction with another 42 quilts will be held on the same day.  The fun begins at 1:30 pm at the Marshall Auditorum, Tucson Medical Center with Honorary Chairs, Mrs. Grant of 94.9Mixfm and her mother, Mary Lou Levesque, Dr. Suresh Katakkar, Master of Ceremonies Liz McMahon, and Auctioneer Oscar Jaramillo.

Fifty volunteers hung and readied the quilts for the Silent Auction on Friday, August 28.  Within days over 10 quilts were sold at the Buy Me Now price.

At Home with Nature

 Patricia Votruba of San Diego made a quilt in honor of her friend Cindy who was diagnosed with breast cancer for the 2006 auction.  This past year she made one for her friend Kirsten who was diagnosed with adrenal cancer.  A friendly bidding battle ensued among Kirsten’s family members to be the one who paid the most for the privilege of handing the quilt to their loved one.  Thank you for your generous donation.

The second quilt was sold on the East coast.  Lucille Fiske’s brother and sister travelled to Hawaii and found a lovely pattern for this Hawaiian quilt.  Knowing that she would never make the quilt, Jeanne gave the pattern to Lucille who made the quilt and sold it back to her brother and Jeanne.  Their nice donaton went to Quilt for a Cause.

 Donations of quilts need not be sent into Tucson for the Live/Silent Auction.  They can be sold at any location with the proceeds going towards Quilt for a Cause.  Contact Jeannie Coleman (auction@quiltforacause.org) for information about this process.