The Quilts of Valor initiative paid a visit to Sudbury this past week, visiting Finlandia Village to present quilts to two veterans.
The Quilts of Valor program is dedicated to honouring military veterans for their service by providing comfort through a handcrafted quilt.
“The veterans are very deserving and a lot of them have been forgotten. And so we just want to be able to say thank you from Canada for what they have done and the injuries they have sustained because of it,” said Donna Miner, the regional manager of Northeastern Ontario of the Quilts of Valor Program.
Miner travelled from Thunder Bay to present quilts to three veterans, however one of the veterans — Lionel Brisebois, who did three years of training with the Canadian Army in Alberta — was unable to attend the presentation ceremony.
Quilts were presented to Bruce Weaver and William Hurteau on Sept. 8.
Weaver served as a United Nations peacekeeper on the island of Cyprus in 1965 in the conflict between Greeks and Turkish Cypriots.
A member of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, Weaver was part of a tank division. When he was deployed to Cyprus, his patrols looked a lot like “separating the battles between neighbours,” he said in an interview with Sudbury.com.
“There was much hatred over there,” he said.
Despite the tense situation, Weaver said the people appreciated the presence of peacekeepers. “It was good for us, and good for the people. And I always remember that because the people over there were really good to us,” he said.
After serving 12 years, Weaver settled in Quebec, becoming a fan of the Montreal Canadiens. In fact, he was sporting a Montreal Canadiens t-shirt for the quilt ceremony. Subsequently, the quilt he received had a red and blue color scheme, which he appreciated.
The second veteran to receive a quilt this past week was 96-year-old William Hurteau, who cracked a few jokes during the presentation, with his easy-going nature earning laughs from the small gathering of people in the room.
“You got to talk a little loud, though,” Hurteau said when asked to share his thoughts. “And you can’t make me walk around,” he joked from his wheelchair. “I can’t walk.”
Hurteau was an infantryman in the European campaign during the Second World War, participating in numerous battles.
“Each one followed the other, going from one country to another country to another country,” he said.
Enlisting at the age of 17, he described some of what he experienced during the war.
“Well I grew up to be a man awful quick,” Hurteau said. “You never knew whether you were going to live from one day to another. You always had that in your mind.”
After the war, Hurteau briefly settled in Pembroke, Ont., before moving to Sudbury for work in 1947.
During the ceremony, Miner draped a quilt around the shoulder of each man and read from a prepared statement, thanking them for their service.
“We want the quilt to be a hug,” she said. “We want our quilts to hug our veterans. On behalf of Quilts of Valor Canada, in recognition of your service, and sacrifice for Canada and all Canadians. It is a privilege to honor and comfort you. Though we may not know the depth of your sacrifice to protect and defend our freedom, we thank you.”
