GORE BAY—With friends and family on hand, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) veteran Jack Bould was presented with a Canada Quilt of Valour for his service and sacrifice to protect the residents of Canada and the world.
“I’m here to present a Quilt of Valour to Jack Bould,” said Judy Millard, who lives in Elliot Lake and is a member of the Quilts of Valour Canada. “The program was initiated in 2007, and these quilts are presented to Canadian service personnel as a thank you for their service.”
“Jack Bould served 24 years in the Canada military (Royal Canadian Electrical Mechanical Engineers) and was overseas in the Golan Heights and Bosnia,” said Ms. Millard. “A majority of his service overseas was in peacekeeping or trying to keep peace in these areas.”
“These quilts of valour are made by quilters all over Canada as a way to say thank you to service men and women injured in some fashion, visibly or not, who put themselves in danger for the protection of Canada and the world,” said Ms. Millard.
She explained Quilts of Valour is a registered charity. Quilts are made nationally, and she encouraged everyone who knows of a service man/woman anywhere in Canada who they feel is deserving of a Quilt of Valour quilt to go onto their website and put their name forward by filling out a nomination form. “But first tell the person whose name you are submitting and ask if they would like one, because there is the chance that doing this could trigger bad memories for service personnel.”
“Speaking as one of the thousands of people who make these quilts, what we need is nominations of people that should be presented with one of these quilts. We want these quilts to go out to as many deserving people as possible.”
“In speaking of Elliot Lake, we’ve presented these quilts on the North Shore, Manitoulin and all points in between in the area. They are made and presented throughout the country,” said Ms. Millard, noting over 23,000 have been made and presented.
“The quilt being presented here today (to Mr. Bould) was made by the Happy Quilters of Gore Bay about a year ago,” explained Ms. Millard.
“Thank you so much,” stated Mr. Bould who noted, “mine will definitely get used.”
Mr. Bould told The Expositor, “I was very happy to receive this quilt, especially since it was one that was made in Gore Bay. It means a lot.”
“I did a NATO peacekeeping tour in Bosnia in 1998. It was fairly peaceful then. I also did a tour of the Golan Heights where we would see the odd rocket being launched (between Lebanon and Israel),” said Mr. Bould. “But fortunately, I didn’t see anything terrible when I was stationed there.”
