On a rainy Saturday morning in late October, 11 women and several men gathered in the church basement to pin together and sew quilts. Their goal? Fifty quilts by 8 p.m.

That Saturday, October 27, was national Make a Difference Day, an observance started in 2005 by USA Weekend magazine.

The folks gathered in the basement at Arndts were doing just that – making a difference – for the Safe Harbor shelter in Easton, a homeless shelter in New Orleans, and Lutheran World Relief.

Spearheading the venture was Arndts member Marjorie Paul. She suggested that Arndts "make a difference" by recycling donated old blankets into new three-layered quilts.

''Our motto is 'A Simple Quilt for Suffering People!' Marjorie explained.

“I introduced this ministry to the congregation in August by draping 10 quilts that I had already completed over the pews and pinning this note to them:
 

“That got everyone's attention!” she laughed. “We had more than enough donations of sheets, blankets, pillowcases, bedspreads, mattress pads, and odds and ends of new material.”

Marjorie's husband, Howard Paul, was one of the men helping at the event. He and two other people, Louise Hawk and Denise Adams, cut and pinned together blankets in the first step in making the next quilt.

"This is an easy way of giving back by helping someone else," said Denise Adams.

Marjorie Paul spoke about her dreams for the project: “Our prayer and hope is that, through publicity, other ELCA churches would decide to adopt this ministry, and that each church would commit to making 50 ‘simple quilts’ on the fourth Saturday of October,” she said. “It coordinates nicely with Reformation Sunday, and would be an awesome example of the church putting its faith into action!

“Imagine... 50 x 10,549 congregations! How about a goal of 100, two from each state? That's very modest. Imagine!

Marjorie is willing to put together a simple “how to” packet, including tips on getting the congregation involved. She and her husband have a website with information at users.rcn.com/paulh1/simplequilts (no www first). She and others from the congregation are willing to speak to groups that might be interested.

And, yes, they made their goal – and then some.

“We completed 52 quilts,” noted Marjorie. “I took 15 of them to Safe Harbor yesterday, 10 will go to New Orleans, and 27 will go to Lutheran World Relief.”