Quilters tickled pink for cancer fundraiser

By Philip Rushton
Hinton Parklander


Rocky Mountain Quilters are stitching up a storm of blankets for a breast cancer fundraiser auction in the autumn.

"I've never worked with so much pink in my life," said Barb Verquin, president of the club.

The quilting fundraising idea has spread across North American quilting clubs originally for people going through chemo.

Hoping for a dozen, quilters have been busy since February making over 50 to date. Everything from wall hangings to table mats and kids' to queen sized blankets for live auction, with an average starting bid of $200.

"It's beyond belief, so many ladies pitched in, making the blanket tops and bindings," said Verquin.

On a road trip Verquin and a friend raided pink fabrics at Red Deer Quilt Show and back through Rocky Mountain House, Drayton Valley and all points along the Yellowhead highway out to Jasper on their quest for pink fabric.

When Verquin was buying up all their pink 10 meter bolts of fabric, quilt shops kindly discounted fabric to the cause.

"Most of it is stored at my house to my husband's dismay," said Verquin.

The quilters husbands have helped too, such as making the frames for the quilts.

The event will be at Griffths Ford in November where the quilts will be on display in the showroom. It will be a fancy wine and cheese and live musical entertainment event.

The quilters joined fundraising forces with Courtney Congdon who is working on a Cancer Calendar. Solomon Creek Quilters in Brule are also working on the project.

"The way people pitched in donating money, fabric, thread and their time is great," said Verquin.

All proceeds are going towards the cancer clinic at the Hinton Hospital. People come from all over the region for different cancer treatments.

For details on making a pink quilt, contact Verquin or come on down to The Guild Wednesday nights.

Taking care of healthcare workers

By Philip Rushton

There's great people who work mental health who have extraordinary patience and gifts to help people who are incapacitated or unable to cope on their own without assistance. Health care workers spend years in studies and lonely frustrating practicums, working long hours on energy and determination alone with some support from family and friends.

However, that's less mentioned than when something goes wrong like Melissa Ekkelenkamp walking off ward in Edmonton, everyone jumps in to search or points fingers. However, there are everyday patient-centric policies and procedures in place. When internal investigations happen, improvements will be made. Dedicated people have the trust of families who have caring for their relatives with home-care.

Mental health care is one of those hot-button issues to be tip-toed around until things go wrong. One doesn't have to look hard to find health care working.

When working in small but mighty community partnerships with Alberta Health care programs and projects on shoe-string budgets. Miracles despite funding cuts, though social programs are sometimes first to feel over-stretched.

Now I know some compassionate and hard working nurses, social workers and care-aids; even when I'm checking into ER or phoning HealthLink without having a doctor, I can see nurses are trying hard to balance needs.

Others I know who work in mental health would feel guilty if they lost one of their patients. On good days, patients just want to talk about normal subjects and have their worries addressed. On bad days, when depression and delirium hits, nurses and care aids dig down for extra patience and grace to deal with those under their charge.

So for the Ekkelenkamp family worried about their daughter and their sister in Edmonton for nearly two weeks, for people who know first-hand about how vulnerable people with mental barriers can become, our hopes and prayers are with them that she is found okay.

So a thanks to the volunteers who are out there looking for her. Kudos to the strength of healthcare workers who treat it as more than just a job. A thank-you and support from the province when things are running smooth would be good too.



PS: there are no photos of mental health nurses to protect their patients' privacy, so on annoying side-note it's really really hard to find a non-sexy or non-recruiter's website nurse photo.... lots of photos of Nurse Jackie, but she's not exactly a shining example of good nursing profession. More on that later... very deep and divided topic....

Thanks for cute drawing to an artist from S. Korea:
http://windship.deviantart.com/

Also, although a British nurse, meh... caring for babies is pretty universal.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Nursing_baby.jpg