Every year on Veterans Day, Petersburg’s local veterans are honored with Quilts of Valor and a parade organized by the school district.
Listen to an audio postcard from Petersburg’s Veterans Day parade:
Community members and students packed the sidewalk outside of the elementary school on the morning of Nov. 11. A line of police vehicles, fire trucks and cars filled with veterans stretched around the block, rolling through the street to the tune of cheers and honking. Kids ran up to deliver thank you cards and posters to the veterans along the way.
Local quilters sewed Quilts of Valor for nine Petersburg veterans this year. The patriotic quilts are presented at the end of the parade, draped around the shoulders of the veterans in a gesture of appreciation.
Alaska has the highest percentage of veterans in the country.
Since 2016, Petersburg’s quilting guild has awarded 146 Quilts of Valor to local veterans.
“We are going to continue this until we know that everyone who is a veteran has gotten one,” said quilt project organizer Carol Kandoll.
The quilts are personally made by the local quilters. Each of them are inscribed with the respective veteran’s name and service details.
Kandoll’s husband presented a quilt to U.S. Coast Guard veteran Erik Dreisbach; he was part of a rescue mission when Kandoll’s F/V Providence struck a rock and started sinking.
“[Dreisbach] went above and beyond,” said Kandoll.
