Honoring a WWII Veteran

At Christmastime, my favorite second grade class in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, created the quilt blocks shown here for me to use in a quilt that would honor someone in the military.

We started this project of making our "Thank You for Your Service" quilts a couple of years ago and so far we've gifted our quilts to deployed soldiers.The first year to a soldier who was deployed in Afghanistan and last year to a married couple deployed in Iraq.

This year we decided that our recipient would be a local White Bear Lake resident and  WWII veteran, Bob Clemens. With a little help from Bob's wife, Mary Nell,  Bob thought he was just coming to the  school to speak to the second graders about his time in the military as a pilot. He had no idea we were about to surprise him with our special quilt.

Bob Clemens

The students could not have been more excited about Bob's visit!  Sitting on the floor of the commons were several of the second grade classes all ready to hear Bob tell them about his experiences flying planes during the war.  We also learned that Bob was an only child, and because of that, he had the option of not going to war. (I'd never heard that before)  Instead he chose to serve his country and enlisted in the Air Force in 1942.  He became a pilot and flew 50  missions in 1944 in about a three month time period.

The kids got to ask questions when he was done speaking...I think my favorite question was "Was it scary flying airplanes since they had just been invented?"

And then of course...the best part....we got to surprise Bob and tell him about our very special quilt project and present it to him.

Receiving his quilt

Such an honor to be able to say "Thank you for your service".

We also knew that on Friday, March 11th,  Bob will be celebrating his 92nd birthday.  Not only did we all sing him Happy Birthday, he was also presented with 92 Birthday cards made by elementary students as well as a book of letters of thanks, written by John's second graders.

It was truly a beautiful and emotional event that I feel honored to have a part in ...

Thank you for your service, Bob....from the bottom of our hearts.