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Grace Quilters crank out 3,821 volunteer honors in 2020

Lead Summary
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By
Mavis Fodness

The monetary value of time donated by volunteers in Rock County exceeds $5 million.
Topping the 2020 list in hours were the Grace Quilters, whose 20 volunteers logged 3,821 hours.
The group formally meets Thursday mornings in the church Fellowship Hall. However, several volunteers sew at home or come to the church along Highway 75 in Luverne outside the regular meeting time.
“We are doing something for someone else and not ourselves,” said volunteer Mary Green.
Mary Akkerman is the group’s self-proclaimed “purchasing agent,” who procures fabric, batting and thread for the group that makes an average of 200 quilts a year.
The 60-by-80-inch handmade creations are donated. On Oct. 1 every year the quilts are draped over the church pews and blessed before being packaged and sent to Lutheran World Relief, who distributes the mission quilts.
To meet their annual goal, the group finishes six quilts a week.
Each volunteer specializes in one or more of the 10 steps necessary to finish one quilt.
That specialty could be matching fabric colors or tying knots, Akkerman said.  Not every member enjoys or is able to sew.
During the pandemic, the women wore masks and spread out their work areas, a practice still in place as they were vaccinated.
A.C.E. (Advocate Connect Educate) of Rock County coordinates the local volunteer program, and not all of its groups were able to meet as often as normal.
 
Volunteer hours are down; volunteering up in Rock County
Volunteer numbers were down last year in each of the seven A.C.E. of Southwest Minnesota member counties except one — Rock County.
Michelle Baumhoefner, the agency’s executive director, presented the 2020 annual report at the May 4 County Board meeting.
She credits local coordinator Linda Wenzel for the increase in volunteers and her enthusiastic promotion of aging services within Rock County.
“She has just turned this program around and has done a phenomenal job,” Baumhoefner said.
You have a very valuable program that is unique to the area serving southwest Minnesota. If we weren’t available to residents, you would see a great deal of loss within your communities.”
A.C.E. hired Wenzel in July 2019.
“My main goal for 2020 was to engage younger volunteers,” Wenzel said.
“I always felt like volunteerism is a step toward gaining different experiences. My sales pitch: ‘It looks good on your college application and it looks good on your resume.’”
Rock County had 494 volunteers in 2020, up from 457 in 2019. Volunteers helped at 60 locations or stations within the county.
However, despite the increase in the number of volunteers, the hours logged decreased from 46,345 in 2019 to 33,810 last year.
The highest number in the past five years was in 2016, when volunteering reached 59,014 hours.
 
Education encourages more volunteer hours
Wenzel strives to increase volunteer hours in 2021. “My main job is educating the public,” Wenzel added.
The previous RSVP program was limited to people age 55 and older logging hours. A.C.E. volunteers can be of any age, and an insurance trust provides coverage for all who are registered.
There are 2,205 volunteers within the seven counties. In 2020 they collectively logged 193,659 hours, down from 270,761 in 2019 and the high of 278,501 in 2016.
Following Grace Quilters’ 3,821 hours in 2020 was ATLAS-Redeemed Remnants with 2,554 hours logged by 41 volunteers.

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