August 6, 2024 • 12 mins
We spoke with Deborah Van Steenbergen, Founder and President of Quilts That Care, along with Maura Yerger, Vice President, about their organization that makes and donates quilts to cancer patients at 20 local Connecticut facilities.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Alison Demurs. Thank you for joining me for community access.
Today we have Quilts that Care. We have founder and
president Deborah van Steinbergen, and we have vice president Mara Yerger.
Thank you for being here, Thank you for having us So, Deborah,
you begin in twenty twelve. Yes, what led you to
(00:21):
start Quilts the Care.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
My husband was a cancer patient at the Lever Cancer
Center in Waterbury and I've always had a love of
quilts and I was a mediocre quilter at the time,
and I would go with my husband when he had
a treatment at the Lever Center and you would see
the same people every day coming for their treatments. And
(00:48):
I said to my husband, I wanted to do something.
What could I do to make this better for someone
else going through the same thing my husband was going through.
And so I approached the social worker there and said,
is it possible to get some space here to quilt?
(01:09):
I'd like to make some quilts and then give them
out to the patients. No real plan, this is all
going on in our heads together and never expecting them
to say yes, which they did. And from there we
proceeded to have our first meeting and twenty five people
showed up and it was pretty amazing. And from there
(01:32):
that was April of twenty twelve, and we had hoped
to make eight quilts by the end of the year,
one a month, and we made one hundred and seven
that first year. And here we are in twenty twenty four.
We are in nineteen cancer facilities throughout the state of
Connecticut and we have made over seven thousand quilts.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Holy cow. So why did you want to make the quilts?
Did you see a need for it that people work
while they were going through chemo and they did have
a blanket or something.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I just quiltes.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
To me, my grandmother quilted. My mother quilted, and quilts
always meant to me love and comfort and made you
feel good about yourself. And I wanted a cancer patient
to know that there were people thinking about them and
wishing them hope and love and just get the warmth
(02:28):
of the quilt. Also, my husband, my husband was always
cold after a treatment, and I quilted and I sewed,
and I wanted to And my other thought was I
wanted people to know, like you know, when you get
the f a flu or the cold or something, you
go get an old afghan out of the closet or
(02:49):
your grandmother's old blanket, and you wrap yourself and your
old sweats and all that. And I wanted people to
know that you are the same person that you were before,
or you just are a person now with cancer and
you deserve something beautiful and gorgeous, not your old blanket
in the closet, to.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Make them feel loved.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You did this while your husband was going through chemo? Yes,
and what were his thoughts about all of this?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He was very happy and very proud of what we
were doing.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And he said to me, I promise.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You you were going to do amazing things. You are
not going to believe what's going to happen some you know,
down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And I was like, but I believed him.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Because we were together thirty two years and he never
lied to me, and he was a very good man, and.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
He was right.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
He was right.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, how beautiful that's true love and unconditional. Yes, absolutely so,
without getting too much into it, where is your husband?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Is he still with us now?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We started in April twenty twelve and he passed in
August twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm so sorry, thank you, But you continued on. Where
did you go.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
After that, we started meeting at the Lever Center and
bringing our own fabric, and then I started buying fabric
and then it was like, wow, we you know.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
This is becoming expensive.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And I spoke to an attorney who was a friend
of mine and he said, We're going to make it
a five oh one. I'm going to apply for a
five oh one C three so we will be a
nonprofit and you know you can get And then we
started writing grants and it just the right people came
into our lives, like at the right time, with the
(04:52):
experience to teach me and others of what to do
and how to go forward. And then we just started.
I started going to these hospitals and getting in touch
with the social workers, telling the story, asking them if
they would be interested in receiving these quilts. And I've
never had the door shut on us. Everybody we've approached
(05:15):
has just welcomed dust, and you know, loves getting the
quilts on a monthly basis. So these nineteen facilities get
X amount of quilts every single month. I distribute them
to the social workers and then they decide who gets
the quilts.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
These aren't just a little square that's like two feet
wide by two feet wide. These are absolutely beautiful large
quilts made with love, right correct.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
They are large throws. They're like sixty by forty inches
and like a lot of people think, oh, we're just
giving like a little like wheelchair cover, but no, they're
meant to cover you while you're getting your chemotherapy. Usually
people are in recliners. I've learned, and I've seen from
(06:06):
the different facilities, and then when they're home. I remember dead.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Hair Is she's rather tall, she's.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Five seven and her husband, Bob was well over six
feet big man, and so she wanted to make them
big enough that they would cover the feet feet while
you're laying there and everything. So you know, that's how
they evolved in there, you know, being homemade, and when
(06:32):
you're making one, you're when I'm making one, I often think,
I wonder who this is going to go to, and
it's almost like a secret Santa in a way, and
it's you know, and then sometimes it comes back you
find out that you've you know, actually people have tracked
me down and you know, and very when I was working,
they tracked me down and they were like, you made
(06:54):
this quilt and I'm wrapping myself in it. Now when
I beat cancer, it's going up on my wall as
a wall hanging, and you know, different situations like that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
How do you feel while you're quilting?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It sounds strange, but it's like you're kind of like
meditate and you like wonder who this is going to
go to. And I'm a creative person, so I kind
of that's my favorite thing to do.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You get like lost.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
In your creativity of it. And I'll go from a
making one that's got Yukon fabric, and the next one
will be, you know, for a child, and then the
next one will be for a lady. You know, I
always think like who do I want to make one for?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Next?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Man. You know, we always are pushing make the mail
quilts because when we've done fundraisers or events, the men
love them. They come up. They're like, oh my gosh,
this has golf carts on it. This one has eyeglasses
on it. Ties, you know, you know, sports beer. We
make them with beer and they love those.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I actually showed up once to get a quilt and
my cousin had cancer and he was a state trooper
and he's well, thank God, and it had cars on it.
It was just perfect, and it blessed him so much.
He sat there and he just thought about all the
people who made this and the care and the love
that went into it. Right exactly, I believe. I don't know, Deborah,
(08:19):
maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like one time you
shared with me how some people actually prayed as they
were making the quilts and some people felt healed.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yes they do.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And I've just got a quick story that a quick
story that I'd like to share that is pretty recent.
Our quilts when they go out to the patients, they
have a little card on them and people just sign
their first name on it to just personalize it, so,
you know. So, I just received a thank you note
(08:51):
from someone who said they had recently received a quilt
from Quilt Set Care at one of our facilities that
we donate to. And she says how much warmth and
love she could feel the love in the quill, and
she wanted to thank the person who had signed that card.
And she said, this is the person who signed the card,
(09:12):
Please reach out to her and let her know how
much I love the quilt. Well, I knew when she
told me the first name there's only one volunteer that
we have with that name, and I called her to
tell her about the thank you. And this particular volunteer
is eighty nine years old that sews for us, eighty
(09:34):
nine years old, and I called her and she said,
you made my day. I said, well, you certainly made
mine too. I said, what a beautiful story, from the
start of making this quill, to getting it to our place,
to getting it to the facility, to getting it to
the cancer patient who then reached out back to us.
(09:56):
And I was able to let the volunteer know that
to me is worth a million time.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's just a wonderful feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There's no greater gratification than helping others and absolutely making
them happy.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And these are people will never meet, We don't know
who they are, but they blessed us as much as
we bless them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And you know, this eighty nine year old woman, because
I'm only thinking about the people receiving the quilts, but
you also had a hand in changing their lives. Like
maybe people were lonely, or they were bored, or they
had this gift like you, your creative Maura, and now
they have an outlet for it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Right, Absolutely, does it feel.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Like a sisterhood. Forgive me. If there's men who quilt.
When all of you are together like that, you must
feel like.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The crazy support group. That's what we call.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
It's not like, yeah, mentioned eighty nine years old, but
we have eight year olds. That what. We have a
group of homeschoolers that range from like eight to fourteen.
So I was thinking we have from eight year olds
to in their nineties.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
The quilt with this.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And you have a fundraiser coming up in October.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yes, but we also have one coming up on August fifteenth, fifteenth,
we are playing bingo at Raymore and Flanagan in Waterbury
at thirty five thirty to seven thirty and it's.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Play bingo and then maybe city your husband. I really
need that couch, that's right, every really need that table, Yes,
two couches.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Since Raymore and flann again has done this for us,
this is the third time they've done it.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
For oh nice. And then on October seventeenth, you have
your annual fundraiser. Well, I'm speaking with Deborah van Steenbergen
and Maura Yerger from Quilts That Care. You can go
to Quiltsthecare dot org if you need any information or
look at their Facebook page. Thank you both for being here,
(11:53):
for sharing your story and for loving on people.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Thank you for having us nice
I'm Alison Demurs. Thank you for joining me for community access.
Today we have Quilts that Care. We have founder and
president Deborah van Steinbergen, and we have vice president Mara Yerger.
Thank you for being here, Thank you for having us So, Deborah,
you begin in twenty twelve. Yes, what led you to
(00:21):
start Quilts the Care.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
My husband was a cancer patient at the Lever Cancer
Center in Waterbury and I've always had a love of
quilts and I was a mediocre quilter at the time,
and I would go with my husband when he had
a treatment at the Lever Center and you would see
the same people every day coming for their treatments. And
(00:48):
I said to my husband, I wanted to do something.
What could I do to make this better for someone
else going through the same thing my husband was going through.
And so I approached the social worker there and said,
is it possible to get some space here to quilt?
(01:09):
I'd like to make some quilts and then give them
out to the patients. No real plan, this is all
going on in our heads together and never expecting them
to say yes, which they did. And from there we
proceeded to have our first meeting and twenty five people
showed up and it was pretty amazing. And from there
(01:32):
that was April of twenty twelve, and we had hoped
to make eight quilts by the end of the year,
one a month, and we made one hundred and seven
that first year. And here we are in twenty twenty four.
We are in nineteen cancer facilities throughout the state of
Connecticut and we have made over seven thousand quilts.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Holy cow. So why did you want to make the quilts?
Did you see a need for it that people work
while they were going through chemo and they did have
a blanket or something.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
I just quiltes.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
To me, my grandmother quilted. My mother quilted, and quilts
always meant to me love and comfort and made you
feel good about yourself. And I wanted a cancer patient
to know that there were people thinking about them and
wishing them hope and love and just get the warmth
(02:28):
of the quilt. Also, my husband, my husband was always
cold after a treatment, and I quilted and I sewed,
and I wanted to And my other thought was I
wanted people to know, like you know, when you get
the f a flu or the cold or something, you
go get an old afghan out of the closet or
(02:49):
your grandmother's old blanket, and you wrap yourself and your
old sweats and all that. And I wanted people to
know that you are the same person that you were before,
or you just are a person now with cancer and
you deserve something beautiful and gorgeous, not your old blanket
in the closet, to.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Make them feel loved.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You did this while your husband was going through chemo? Yes,
and what were his thoughts about all of this?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He was very happy and very proud of what we
were doing.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And he said to me, I promise.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You you were going to do amazing things. You are
not going to believe what's going to happen some you know,
down the road.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And I was like, but I believed him.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Because we were together thirty two years and he never
lied to me, and he was a very good man, and.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
He was right.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
He was right.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yes, how beautiful that's true love and unconditional. Yes, absolutely so,
without getting too much into it, where is your husband?
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Is he still with us now?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
We started in April twenty twelve and he passed in
August twenty twelve.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I'm so sorry, thank you, But you continued on. Where
did you go.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
After that, we started meeting at the Lever Center and
bringing our own fabric, and then I started buying fabric
and then it was like, wow, we you know.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
This is becoming expensive.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
And I spoke to an attorney who was a friend
of mine and he said, We're going to make it
a five oh one. I'm going to apply for a
five oh one C three so we will be a
nonprofit and you know you can get And then we
started writing grants and it just the right people came
into our lives, like at the right time, with the
(04:52):
experience to teach me and others of what to do
and how to go forward. And then we just started.
I started going to these hospitals and getting in touch
with the social workers, telling the story, asking them if
they would be interested in receiving these quilts. And I've
never had the door shut on us. Everybody we've approached
(05:15):
has just welcomed dust, and you know, loves getting the
quilts on a monthly basis. So these nineteen facilities get
X amount of quilts every single month. I distribute them
to the social workers and then they decide who gets
the quilts.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
These aren't just a little square that's like two feet
wide by two feet wide. These are absolutely beautiful large
quilts made with love, right correct.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
They are large throws. They're like sixty by forty inches
and like a lot of people think, oh, we're just
giving like a little like wheelchair cover, but no, they're
meant to cover you while you're getting your chemotherapy. Usually
people are in recliners. I've learned, and I've seen from
(06:06):
the different facilities, and then when they're home. I remember dead.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Hair Is she's rather tall, she's.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
Five seven and her husband, Bob was well over six
feet big man, and so she wanted to make them
big enough that they would cover the feet feet while
you're laying there and everything. So you know, that's how
they evolved in there, you know, being homemade, and when
(06:32):
you're making one, you're when I'm making one, I often think,
I wonder who this is going to go to, and
it's almost like a secret Santa in a way, and
it's you know, and then sometimes it comes back you
find out that you've you know, actually people have tracked
me down and you know, and very when I was working,
they tracked me down and they were like, you made
(06:54):
this quilt and I'm wrapping myself in it. Now when
I beat cancer, it's going up on my wall as
a wall hanging, and you know, different situations like that.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
How do you feel while you're quilting?
Speaker 4 (07:07):
It sounds strange, but it's like you're kind of like
meditate and you like wonder who this is going to
go to. And I'm a creative person, so I kind
of that's my favorite thing to do.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
You get like lost.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
In your creativity of it. And I'll go from a
making one that's got Yukon fabric, and the next one
will be, you know, for a child, and then the
next one will be for a lady. You know, I
always think like who do I want to make one for?
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Next?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Man. You know, we always are pushing make the mail
quilts because when we've done fundraisers or events, the men
love them. They come up. They're like, oh my gosh,
this has golf carts on it. This one has eyeglasses
on it. Ties, you know, you know, sports beer. We
make them with beer and they love those.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I actually showed up once to get a quilt and
my cousin had cancer and he was a state trooper
and he's well, thank God, and it had cars on it.
It was just perfect, and it blessed him so much.
He sat there and he just thought about all the
people who made this and the care and the love
that went into it. Right exactly, I believe. I don't know, Deborah,
(08:19):
maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like one time you
shared with me how some people actually prayed as they
were making the quilts and some people felt healed.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
Yes they do.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And I've just got a quick story that a quick
story that I'd like to share that is pretty recent.
Our quilts when they go out to the patients, they
have a little card on them and people just sign
their first name on it to just personalize it, so,
you know. So, I just received a thank you note
(08:51):
from someone who said they had recently received a quilt
from Quilt Set Care at one of our facilities that
we donate to. And she says how much warmth and
love she could feel the love in the quill, and
she wanted to thank the person who had signed that card.
And she said, this is the person who signed the card,
(09:12):
Please reach out to her and let her know how
much I love the quilt. Well, I knew when she
told me the first name there's only one volunteer that
we have with that name, and I called her to
tell her about the thank you. And this particular volunteer
is eighty nine years old that sews for us, eighty
(09:34):
nine years old, and I called her and she said,
you made my day. I said, well, you certainly made
mine too. I said, what a beautiful story, from the
start of making this quill, to getting it to our place,
to getting it to the facility, to getting it to
the cancer patient who then reached out back to us.
(09:56):
And I was able to let the volunteer know that
to me is worth a million time.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
It's just a wonderful feeling.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
There's no greater gratification than helping others and absolutely making
them happy.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And these are people will never meet, We don't know
who they are, but they blessed us as much as
we bless them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And you know, this eighty nine year old woman, because
I'm only thinking about the people receiving the quilts, but
you also had a hand in changing their lives. Like
maybe people were lonely, or they were bored, or they
had this gift like you, your creative Maura, and now
they have an outlet for it.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Right, Absolutely, does it feel.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Like a sisterhood. Forgive me. If there's men who quilt.
When all of you are together like that, you must
feel like.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
The crazy support group. That's what we call.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
It's not like, yeah, mentioned eighty nine years old, but
we have eight year olds. That what. We have a
group of homeschoolers that range from like eight to fourteen.
So I was thinking we have from eight year olds
to in their nineties.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
The quilt with this.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And you have a fundraiser coming up in October.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yes, but we also have one coming up on August fifteenth, fifteenth,
we are playing bingo at Raymore and Flanagan in Waterbury
at thirty five thirty to seven thirty and it's.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Play bingo and then maybe city your husband. I really
need that couch, that's right, every really need that table, Yes,
two couches.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Since Raymore and flann again has done this for us,
this is the third time they've done it.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
For oh nice. And then on October seventeenth, you have
your annual fundraiser. Well, I'm speaking with Deborah van Steenbergen
and Maura Yerger from Quilts That Care. You can go
to Quiltsthecare dot org if you need any information or
look at their Facebook page. Thank you both for being here,
(11:53):
for sharing your story and for loving on people.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Thank you for having us nice
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