This week, 360 Quilts of Valor were awarded to service members and veterans.
Just this month, 818 quilts have been given.
Altogether over 15 years more than 181,000 have been handed out.
They are not just quilts; each is an American patchwork quilt for special veterans who have served their country.
Two of these quilts were presented to two of those special veterans Monday.
The Quilts of Valor program honors service members and veterans touched by war “with comforting and healing” quilts.
Brigadier Gen. (ret.) James E. Mace and his daughter, Mary Mace Baumeister, were recognized for their service by the Quilts of Valor program on Feb. 12 at People, Places and Quilts in Summerville, when they each received their own quilt.
The quilts have their characteristics: Mace’s quilt has four panels depicting paratroopers, a helicopter scene, soldiers looking into the horizon and a truck transport scene.
“I’ve done everything that’s on there,” he said.
Mace said he was glad to receive the recognition with the quilt.
“It’s really something special,” he said.
Baumeister went to West Point and served in Haiti during the Operation Restore Democracy during the 1990s. She echoed similar sentiments about her red, white and blue quilt, which she plans to put in her family room.
“I feel very honored,” she said.
The general is one of The Citadel’s most highly decorated veterans; he served as the military college’s commandant from 1999 to 2009. His other daughter, Nancy Mace, is the first woman to graduate from The Citadel and is now the state representative for District 99.
Monday was a family affair; Mace was joined by both daughters and his wife, Anne. Mace himself is a second-generation service member; his children are third-generation, and Baumeister’s children are fourth-generation – two of them are at West Point and another is serving in Afghanistan with his wife.
The quilts were a joint effort by St. George residents Joe and Diane Zielinski, who are good friends to the Maces.
Annie Mixon, state coordinator for Quilts of Valor in South Carolina, said people would not be able to do a lot of the things they do back home if it weren’t for these service members.
“Why wouldn’t we make them a quilt?” she said.
