50 local veterans receive 'Quilts of Valor'
Fifty area veterans were honored for their service Saturday during the second annual Quilts of Valor event in Holton.
The event was held at the First United Methodist Church and began with music by the Jackson County Community Band and harpist Hannah Glatter.
A free will donation meal was held followed by the presentation of the quilts.
Connie Morgan gave the introduction and closing remarks at the event. Luke Schreiber of Soldier Christian Church gave the invocation and closing prayer.
Jackson County Commissioner Rob Ladner presented the quilts to the 50 honorees, including the following veterans:
Don Askren, Tamera Askren, Lee Austin, Stephen “Steve” Banaka, Joseph Barnes, Raymond Beatty, James Bergstresser, Bob Bernatis, Gaylen Bohnenkemper, Jay Branam, Charles (Bill) Brown, Ed Bruns, Jerry Bueker, Eldon Burke, Robert Butts, Dale Clements, Marvin Criqui, Dan Curl, Frances DeVader, Stephen Devlin, Elmer Ent, Kenny Farmer, Pat Fontaine, Eldon Greemore.
Bill Hards, Don Hasenkamp, Julia Kabance, Milton LaClair, Larry Larkin, Manny Moser, Bernard Ohlsen, Jack Pittaway Sr., Benny Potts, Billy Price, Roger Rethman, Dorothy Rogers, Charles Scheidegger, Robert (Bob) Schiffbauer, Larry Schumann, James Seematter, Jack Stephenson, George Stewart, Lester (Corky) Sumner, Leonard Dale Swindale, George Wahquahboshkuk, Roy Wahquahboshkuk, Wayne Wheeler, Dale Wichman and Billy Wilbur.
Julia Kabance, who is 105 and a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, was the oldest veteran honored on Saturday.
Kabance was inducted into the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Army Air Force) on March 17, 1943. She attended basic training at Fort Des Moines Cavalry Post in Iowa, where she was housed in horse stables that had been converted into barracks.
She was one of 13 women sent to Tacoma, Wash., and achieved the rank of staff sergeant as a general clerk for the Adjutant Section at McCord Air Force Base at Tacoma.
Kabance was honorably discharged Dec. 14, 1945. She earned the World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal and a Good Conduct Medal.
Prior to the event, community members nominated area veterans for the Quilts of Valor.
To qualify, the veteran must have served overseas during a wartime campaign.
Almost 500 quilt blocks were made and donated to the local project. Additional volunteers put the quilt blocks together to form the quilt top, quilt the quilts and then put binding on them.
Volunteers also sewed quilt labels on the quilts and made pillowcases that accompany each quilt. Almost 200 volunteers – locally and nationally – made the event possible, it was reported.
During the local event last year, 52 veterans were presented with quilts and 225 people attended the meal.
