LAC LA BICHE – Young children living in Beaver Lake Cree Nation will be a bit warmer thanks to colourful, handcrafted quilts that were donated to the Beaver Lake Health Centre on Feb. 13.
The donation was made by the ladies’ craft and quilters group at the Lac La Biche Heritage Society.
Ruby Mountain, a maternal child health worker at the Beaver Lake Health Centre, said officials with the health unit are appreciative of the gift.
“It feels good,” Mountain told Lakeland This Week. “They’re helping a lot.”
The quilts are given to less fortunate mothers in Beaver Lake with children under the age of six.
“They’re so happy and proud to be given something nice, because a blanket like that goes a long way,” Mountain said. “To be given something like that, that’s awesome.”
As to how the Beaver Lake Health Centre received this donation of quilts, Mountain explained that she spoke with a worker at the William J. Cadzow Health Centre in Lac La Biche about the need for warm blankets for kids in the community, which is located about 14 km south of the hamlet of Lac La Biche.
This individual in turn reached out to the Lac La Biche Heritage Society.
“And it went from there,” she said.
On Feb. 13, Mountain, along with Heather Hardwick, a community health nurse in Beaver Lake, met with Janet Harrison, who runs the ladies craft and quilters group, to accept the quilts.
The quilting group meets weekly throughout the year, and being able to donate the blankets to help others feels "Pretty darn good,” said Harrison.
The quilts, she explained, are an ongoing project.
“Everything we make we donate.”
In previous years, the ladies’ crafters and quilters group has donated quilts, knitted items such as mitts and toques, along with giving monetary donations to various community organizations and local schools. However, this marked the first time the group has worked with Beaver Lake.
