Sharon Poynor Public Relations • 415-789-9150 • poynor@aol.com
THE 37TH ANNUAL KPFA CRAFTS & MUSIC FAIR TO DISPLAY EAST BAY HERITAGE QUILTERS’ POWERFUL AND HEARTWARMING CHILDREN’S QUILTS PROJECT
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — The 37th Annual KPFA Crafts & Music Fair will be the only public venue this holiday season to see a very special collection of beautiful and colorful quilts made for homeless and ill children in the Bay Area. The Children’s Quilts/East Bay Heritage Quilters’ (EBHQ) display and quilting activity area will be a featured part of this year’s fair at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco December 8 & 9, 2007 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day.
Children’s Quilts/EBHQ leads a massive volunteer effort to make and distribute approximately 1000 quilts every year to children living with AIDS and HIV disease, children born drug-addicted, and homeless children in the Bay Area. The project originated in 1988 when one woman in Berkeley decided to make a quilt to comfort a child with AIDS. Soon, friends and family joined her effort, which has continued to blossom each year and has been replicated in every state and six other countries.
Every third Saturday of the month Children's Quilts volunteers gather in Albany to help cut, sew, tie and bind quilts for the children. The East Bay Heritage Quilters' membership of 500-600 donates equipment and materials. Children’s Quilts/EBHQ Coordinator, Deanna Davis, says she is honored and humbled that the quilt guild members are so generous with their time and supplies. “I am so touched that the members of our community trust me with all their scraps and snips of fabric and leftover supplies,” she says. “And I still, after twenty years, continue to smile thinking of all the comfort and love our quilts have brought to so many lives.”
Completed quilts are distributed to 50 Bay Area shelters, hospitals, intensive care nurseries, social service organizations, foster care networks and rehabilitation programs including the Alameda County Family Justice Center and the Bananas Inc. Respite Program in Oakland. In a special effort through the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, 200 small memory blankets have been presented to parents who have lost a little one.
Visitors to this year’s KPFA Crafts & Music Fair can see a special display of some of Children’s Quilts/EBHQ’s loveliest pieces, including one with a colorful parrot appliqué created by the Kuna Indians of the San Blas Islands in Panama. Another features a fun, built-in game with ladybugs and other critters hidden in its intricate patterns. Children & adults can also roll up their sleeves and join in the effort, learning the basics of quilting through hands-on activities.
Admission to the Fair is $10.00 for adults, $7.00 for people over 65 and those with disabilities; children under 17 are admitted free. Complimentary continuous shuttles will be provided by KPFA from the Civic Center BART Station at the 8th and Market MUNI bus stop and from the Caltrain station at 4th and King Streets. Valet bicycle parking provided by the SF Bicycle Coalition. Carpooling is available with Spaceshare.com.
PUBLIC INFORMATION: Call KPFA 94.1 fm at 510/848-6767 ext. 646 or visit
www.kpfa.org/craftsfair.