Quilters for Kids are grateful to give back to sick children, their families

For nearly 30 years, Eileen Planck has been joined by quilters in the sewing room of a southeast-side retirement community to craft quilts for ill children.

Planck, 95, said she is thankful that she can continue giving back to children and their families by doing something she loves.

Her arthritic hands have not stopped her from creating artistic pieces from fabric that is cut, pinned and sewn into checker-board-style patterns.

Since 1991, Planck and volunteer quilters — known as Quilters for Kids — have given their creative abilities to bring comfort and joy to ill and injured children.

The children and their families are staying at the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Southern Arizona. Staff and volunteers at the house, 2155 E. Allen Road, provide free lodging and meals for families with children undergoing treatment at Tucson hospitals.

“I and the other women are thankful that we can give back to the community. We are thankful that we can help,” said Planck of Quilters for Kids, a community service group she founded at Voyager RV Resort, 8701 S. Kolb Road. The group formed after Planck visited the Ronald McDonald House.

“There was this little boy sitting on the floor pushing a car to a little girl with cancer,” remembered Planck. She said she was moved by the children and decided to make the house a charity for the quilting group.

“The quilts mean everything to the families, especially the children,” said Judy Goddard, volunteer coordinator for Ronald McDonald House. “We place a quilt on every bed in the house. When the families check into a room, they find these lovely quilts and stuffed animals.

“It makes them feel happy. It is something they enjoy. If they have to return to the house, they hang on to the quilt,” said Goddard. “I enjoy watching their faces and seeing a mother wrap her small child in the quilt, or a child or mom carrying the quilt as they walk around the house.”

During a recent stay at the Ronald McDonald House, Shavon Dickinson said “the quilts added a layer of comfort” to their cozy room. “My kids were really excited to see the quilts, and that was the first thing they went for in the room,” said the mother of four. She said her family traveled from Fountain Valley, California, to Tucson because their 3-year-old son, Zyel, needed medical exams because of brain swelling. The Dickinson family stayed two nights and may have to return, depending on Zyel’s test results.

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As Planck makes quilts, she may pick squares with airplanes, helicopters, puppies, stuffed animals or a toy and she imagines stories that a mother can create to tell her child who is wrapped in one of her quilts.

“I want the child to be comforted and to know they are loved every minute,” said Planck, who was born on her maternal grandparents farm near Kansas City, Missouri, in 1924.

She worked as a private secretary for a milling company in Kansas City before she married her husband, Dale Planck, who worked in the electronics industry. The couple retired and moved to Tucson in 1985. They were married for 70 years. Dale died in 2013.

Quilters for Kids has donated about 8,000 quilts to the Ronald McDonald House, and the group is going strong with about a dozen women quilting with Planck. The women work on quilts at their homes and meet every Thursday to hand-stitch and machine sew the quilts.

Edde Rolstad, 76, is one of those women who was recruited by Planck to join Quilters for Kids. “Eileen told me they could use extra hands. I have been sewing since I was 12. It is a fun thing to do, and Eileen showed me how to quilt,” said Rolstad, who spends time also golfing or doing other volunteer work.

Rolstad is a retired elementary school librarian who moved from Alaska to Tucson in 2009. She devotes an hour a day to quilting and can finish a small quilt in about two weeks.

“I like knowing the quilts are going to a good cause, and I like to get to work with really nice ladies who also chose to make quilts for children,” said Rolstad.

In February, the group drops off more than 200 quilts to Ronald McDonald House. The quilters are supported with cash and fabric donations by residents of their retirement community and occasionally have fundraisers to purchase supplies.

“We are very blessed to receive Eileen’s and the other women’s quilts,” said Goddard. “It means a lot to us.”