Throughout
the COVID-19 pandemic, the frontline caregivers at St. Tammany Health System and
other healthcare organizations have had their communities covered. Now, Vizient
is teaming with QUILTmania magazine and the Georgia-based Chatahoochee Evening
Stars Quilt Guild to return the favor in their own special way.
On Tuesday (Nov. 1, 2022), Vizient
Southern States President and CEO Bill Senneff paid a visit to St. Tammany
Health System to present the organization with a unique, handmade expression of
gratitude: an approximately 5-foot-square quilt handcrafted by an international
team of quilters and embedded with healthcare imagery.
“QUILTmania
wanted to do something to recognize caregiving during the pandemic,” Senneff
said. “So they came to us with the idea of quilting.”
In all, 80
quilt designers answered the call, with another 1,000 quilters from around the
world joining in to help stitch 10-inch blocks that would be assembled to form
18 quilts. In September, the final products were displayed as part of an
exhibition at City Hall in Alpharetta, Georgia, before being distributed to specially
chosen healthcare organizations.
The quilt
presented to St. Tammany Health System, appropriately, incorporated deep red tones
– matching the health system’s signature color – and included quilted blocks
made by quilters in California, Texas, Illinois and Mexico.
The most
dominant motif to appear is the iconic red cross symbol, which has become an
emblem for medicine. Also present is a stethoscope and nursing hat, a stylized
vase of flowers and the word “Love.”
In many
cases, the quilters who worked on the individual blocks signed their names, all
of which are included in a panel stitched to the quilt’s reverse explaining the
sentiments behind the project, dubbed “Comforting Stitches: Quilters’ Response
to the Pandemic.”
Their only
requests, Senneff said, was that the quilt be displayed in a place where
members of the caregiving team at St. Tammany Health System can see it, as a
reminder that their dedication during the pandemic has been recognized, and also
that members of the public will be able to view it to remind them of those sacrifices.
According
to Nicole Suhre, executive director of St. Tammany Hospital Foundation, which
operates the health system’s Healing Arts Initiative, it has yet to be
determined where the quilt will hang.
But, she
said, “I know our Healing Arts team will find an appropriate place – and it
will be a place of honor.”