The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Please take time this November 11th to remember the sacri�ce of those that died defending our country. We owe these heroes our deepest thanks and gratitude. (866) 878 5556 michael.chong@parl.gc.ca www.michaelchong.ca Lest we forget We REMEMBER www.unitedwayofhaltonhills.ca Thursday, November 7, 2013 The Independent & Free Press Special pullout section 8 Pages Branch 120 Royal Canadian Legion president Jack Harrison admires the quilt before it is placed in the display cabinet at the Georgetown Branch of the Halton Hills Public Library. Photo by Ted Brown First World War quilt returns ... almost 100 years later The year was 1915. Like the rest of the British Common- wealth, Canada was at war, as count- less soldiers were shipped overseas to fight the enemy on the trenched battle- fields of Europe. Back home in Georgetown, vari- ous groups were thinking of ways to support those who had signed up and marched off to that faraway war in Eu- rope. The Georgetown Women's Institute (WI) decided to create a quilt for those soldiers who had been wounded and were recuperating in hospital in Eng- land. The quilters would never have guessed that nearly 100 years later their labour of love would find its way home. With war already raging for a year, the WI decided to 'sell' space on the quilt, charging everyone 10 cents per name, to have their name embroidered on the quilt. In an excerpt from The Georgetown Herald's July 28, 1915 issue, (ironically published one year to the day after war had been declared in Europe), the no- tice went out to the WI members, ask- ing for help with the quilt. The excerpt read: 'Would all interested in the autograph quilt for the Women's Institute hasten to secure names that all may be worked and returned by the first week in Sept. to give time to complete for exhibition at the fall fair. We would suggest that there be many family, business, and profes- sional groups, anyone at a distance to have their address attached. Names will be repeated as often as ten cents is paid. The quilt is to be sent away to the Ca- nadian Hospital in England and the re- mainder of the money used by the Insti- tute to secure comforts for the soldiers.' Obviously, the quilt was completed by September, as it was displayed at the Esquesing Agricultural Society Fall Fair (now Georgetown Agricultural So- ciety) October 6-7, 1915, before being sent overseas. The finished quilt features 355 names. At 10 cents per name, it raised $35.50 in 1915, which would be equiva- lent to raising $717.57 in 2013 dollars. By TED BROWN Staff Writer See QUILT, pg. 3