Quilt stitched with veterans in mind

The American Legion Auxiliary Unit 196 in Medical Lake is raffling off a quilt made by its members to benefit local veterans.

The quilt has been displayed around the West Plains since July and is now at the Bank of Whitman, 8727 W. Highway 2, Airway Heights.

Barbara Fisher, the secretary of the group, said they are hoping to raise $1,500 from the raffle. The quilt features embroidered panels of every state flower in the United States and a centerpiece of a bald eagle.

“Everything is out of our own pocket,” Fisher said about the making of the quilt. About 22 women worked on the panels, including Fisher’s two grandchildren, Hallie, 6, and Tristan Peery, 11, and a 90-year-old member of the group, Carol Gross.

“We put a lot of time and effort into it,” she said.

The group started working on the quilt in March and finished it in June. In July, the quilt went on display at Denny’s Harvest Foods in Medical Lake, where it stayed through the end of August. In September, it moved to Yoke’s Foods in Airway Heights. It will be on display at the Bank of Whitman until Nov. 2, when the group will choose the winner.

Raffle tickets are available at the bank counter for $2 each. Fisher said the winner doesn’t have to be in attendance at the drawing and she said she will ship it to anyone out of state. She said she has sold raffle tickets to people from Minnesota, Massachusetts and North Dakota.

The money raised from the raffle will benefit veterans in the area. Fisher said the group is working to buy socks, long underwear, sweatshirts and other clothing items for residents of the Pioneer Victory House in Spokane, which provides furnished, single-room apartments and case-management services to homeless veterans.

“Our motto is, ‘For God and Country,’ ” Fisher said. “We wouldn’t have what we have without our veterans.”