Veterans honored by quilt collection

At 2:45 a.m. on the morning of Dec. 1, 2009, Karen Mills answered a knock on the door she wishes she had never heard.

When she opened the door, local police enforcement officers informed her that her grandson, Spc. Waide T. James, was murdered four days before his 21st birthday after serving 16 months in Iraq.

James was stationed at Fort Drum in New York while awaiting deployment to Afghanistan when his roommate killed him.

James is one of more than 300 men and women from Florida who have fought in Iraq or Afghanistan and have died while active in the military since the beginning of the wars in 2001.

To honor these servicemen and women, Linda Fliss of Titusville started the Florida Fallen Hero Quilt Project in 2005. The Florida Fallen Hero Quilt Project is a project with a mission to create memory quilts with 30 squares each, with every square bearing the name of a deceased Florida service member.

Despite not being killed in combat, Mills wanted to honor her grandson along with the others she feels are sometimes forgotten.

"Unless you have someone on that quilt, people in the community are just not aware of how many young men and women we've lost in the military," Mills said. "And I am happy to contribute to the quilts and forever remembering those who have fought and died for our freedom."

To date, there are nine completed quilts, which will all be on display on the large wall of the main floor of the UCF Library from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30, during normal library business hours. The display wall is on the right from the entrance to the main floor.

Fliss was inspired by many things to make these memory quilts, but one person fueled her thoughts more than anything.

"My inspiration for this project really is a man I know who came back from Iraq and wanted to do something to honor his fallen comrades, and that is when I came up with the quilt idea," Fliss said. "And quilts are just a way to remember these men and women, and they have always been known to be a comforting item."

The project started small, but with an overwhelming amount of support from the community, Fliss recruited regular donators, quilters and quilter guilds, and now she has committed herself to creating as many quilts as it takes to display every name of every Florida fallen hero who died serving in the war since 2001.

Fliss currently has enough names to create 11 quilts and after that, the quilts will not be available for mobile display but will all be sent to the Museum of Science and History in Jacksonville.

Some of the local volunteers of this growing project do not personally know someone who died in the war, but support the cause immensely. Others, like Mills, have lost someone in the war and want to reach out as much as possible.

"I think supporting the creation of these quilts is important because it means all of these fallen heroes will be remembered, including my grandson," Mills said. "And I think it is also important for the public to see them, because I don't think people are aware of how many people in Florida have died in the war, and this is going to mean a lot to those families."

Once Mills heard about the project, she was more than happy to contribute monetary contributions for materials to make the quilts, something that was perhaps easier to do than collecting her grandson's belongings for his square that will appear on the ninth quilt.

"I don't know how Linda does it. Dealing with all of the families and working on these quilts for so long, day after day," Mills said. "It was hard for me and my daughter, who did most of the work, to get Waide's uniform and dog tags together for the quilt. She just couldn't do it for a long time, because she would just cry."

The UCF libraries, UCF Office of Diversity Initiatives, UCF Community Veterans History Project and the UCF Veteran Services – Registrar's Office, Student Development and Enrollment Services are all sponsors of the Florida Fallen Hero Quilt Project.

"[The Office of Diversity Initiatives] wanted to sponsor this event, because Veteran's Day is celebrated in the month of November, and I think it is appropriate to honor these men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice of fighting for what our country stands for," said Barbara Thompson, assistant director of diversity education and faculty engagement for the Office of Diversity Initiatives. "I think it is going to be a very impactful event, and I hope a lot of people get the chance to see it and experience it."

If you are interested in contributing a block for the quilts in progress, it should measure 9 1/2 inches with a military or patriotic design and a space for a fallen hero's name. For more information on the quilts or to make a contribution, call 321-269-2613 or email lgfdazzle@aol.com. For more information on the library display, please emailBarbara.Thompson@ucf.edu.