Wagoner’s emergency personnel are getting a helping hand from an unexpected source in the Gone to Pieces Quilt Guild. The guild donates quilts for the victims of hazardous events, crime or fire as its these very people who often find themselves out in the elements.

Vice president of the guild, Juanita Schaefer said they started donating quilts last year and that they send then to the police, fire and EMS departments. “Whenever there’s a fire and the fire department has to rescue someone, they can wrap one of these quilts around them,” said Schaefer. “And when the police department has to rescue a child, they can use them as well.” The guild donated 30 quilts to the departments at the

Wagoner Fire Department on the 1^st of December in the hope of helping those in need and many of the Wagoner’s policemen, firefighters and EMS personnel were on hand to receive the handmade quilts. “It’s just to help the whole community,” she said. Only last year the police department rescued a young girl walking down the street in the middle of winter wearing nothing but a diaper, and one of their quilts was used in the rescue.

“That was the first quilt and teddy bear we’d donated that year,” she said. “I just love to quilt and I’m excited about doing things like this for the community.” Schaefer has had a love for quilting since she was a little girl an has been quilting for about five years. “I got into it because when I was a little girl, I would sit and watch my grandmother quilt,” she said. “So when I was real little, I had a love for it. I just love fabric and I love to see what I can do with that fabric.”