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Veterans embraced by quilts and recognition

Meadville Tribune - 5/19/2019

May 19-- May 19--SAEGERTOWN -- Willis Blaine Mumau, 83, enlisted in the Army in 1958, served for 16 months at Fort Meade, Maryland, and then spent another four years in the Army Reserve.

Jeff Mumau of Conneaut Lake, his 59-year-old son, was too young to be aware his father's service at the time, and he never heard much about it as he grew up.

"He didn't really talk about it," Jeff said Saturday following a ceremony in which members of PA Stitchers of Valor, a chapter of the nation Quilts of Valor Foundation, awarded 11 quilts to veterans at the Crawford County Care Center. "I think in that generation, the young men, they went to the service," he said. "That generation ... the work ethic was there. They went through the service, they got out of the service and proceeded on with their lives after that. That was just a normal progression they did back in those days."

Willis Mumau was not alone among the men honored Saturday in not having made much of a fuss regarding his service in the nation's armed forces.

The quilt makers in PA Stitchers of Valor disagree with the notion that such service is no big deal. Quite the contrary, they argue: such service is important, meaningful and worthy of recognition.

The tears in the eyes of several of the veterans being honored -- not to mention several of the quilt makers -- told a different story as well.

Formed by Collene Munn of Meadville in 2017 with members of Free Spirit Quilt Guild of Saegertown and other groups, the organization has awarded 151 quilts to veterans in Crawford and Mercer counties. More than 20 of the quilts were presented Saturday during a morning ceremony at Harm Jan Huidekoper Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2006 and the afternoon ceremony at the Care Center. Approximately 30 people work together on the quilts, meeting on the first Saturday of each month at Saegertown United Methodist Church.

"It's an honor, it really is, to be able to recognize these veterans for what they've done," Munn said as veterans and their family members made their way back to their rooms with the colorful new quilts they had received. "I've heard story after story of what they went through. This is nothing, what we do for them."

The veterans honored at the Care Center included men who had served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm. Their duties stretched from operating a machine gun, like Mumau, to mechanic, cook, air traffic controller and bomber pilot. One of them -- Leslie Meacham -- enlisted in the Navy in 1948 when he was 16. About a year later, when the Navy found out he was younger than the minimum enlistment age, he was honorably discharged.

"The first time you ever see something like this, it just gets in your blood," Stitches of Valor member Kathy Cooper-Winters said after distributing certificates to each of the quilt recipients. "It becomes a passion."

Cooper-Winters compared the ceremony to a civilian version of a military medal being awarded. The veterans receive more than the quilt and certificate, however. They also receive a hug.

"The reason for the hug is so that when you are having a bad day or feeling alone," Munn explained after each veteran had been recognized, "or battling the demons of war, you can wrap this hug around yourself and feel the hug that we just gave you."

Mike Crowley can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.

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