Quilts stock photo.Kathryn Learie for The Globe and Mail
More than 230 handmade quilts are heading to southern Alberta as a gift of love to people who lost their homes in the floods in June.
Arlyce Thompson, who owns Quilter's Haven in Moose Jaw, Sask., put out the call for quilts after hearing of the devastating losses in the town of High River.
The entire town was evacuated and hundreds of people are still out of their flood-damaged homes and living in temporary trailer camps.
Quilters responded from all over Saskatchewan and even a few from Ontario.
Thompson estimates that they have over $160,000 worth of merchandise to give to the people of High River.
She and other volunteers loaded up her van Thursday and she and her 87-year-old mother plan to drive to High River on Friday to deliver the quilts.
"It started because I felt sorry for myself because the same day that they were flooded, I got a flood in my basement in Caronport," Thompson said.
"Then the next day I heard about how bad it was in High River. You hear about so many of them who lost everything and they didn't even have a blanket or quilt to cover themselves with."