Transverse Myelitis Association
Volume 5 Issue 1
December 2002

Page 42
An Opportunity to Win Ann’s Beautiful Quilt
Debbie Capen

Many of you have had the privilege of meeting Ann Moran from Ireland.  She has had transverse myelitis since 1990, being paralyzed from the waist down.  Despite physical disadvantages, she takes on all challenges with a very contagious enthusiasm.  Ann has traveled alone to the United States to attend both TM International symposiums, and another trip just for enjoyment.  She has started a TM support group in Ireland, has been interviewed on the radio to promote awareness of TM, and this past summer Ann single-handedly organized an Information/Awareness day on July 5th with Dr. Douglas Kerr of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelopathy Center as a keynote speaker.

As many of you also know, Ann started a project that she hoped would ultimately promote awareness of TM, would be a valuable keepsake for somebody to hand down to loved ones for generations, as well as raise funds for operating costs of The Transverse Myelitis Association.  Ann is a remarkably talented seamstress and loves to make quilts.  She belongs to a quilting group in the town where she lives.  Ann posted a message to the TMIC list of her intentions to start this project, and asked for people to help her by making quilt blocks and sending them to her.  The outcome was that she received blocks from Australia, Canada, the United States and her own contributions.  Once she received the blocks, Ann put them together to make a beautiful “TM Quilt.”

Ann presented her finished quilt to the TMA at the Second International TM Symposium in Baltimore, MD in July 2001.  We have discussed how we could best offer this quilt for sale to the maximum number of TMA members, and have decided that this would best be done by announcing it in this newsletter.  We are going to offer this beautiful quilt by means of selling raffle tickets.  This will be a worldwide sale, but the sales of the tickets must be presented in US dollars.

If you would like to see a picture of the quilt, you may visit the TMA website at www.myelitis.org/quilt.  We will begin selling raffle tickets immediately.  The purchase price of the tickets will be $2.00 for each ticket, and three tickets for $5.00.  The proceeds from the sale of the tickets will be donated to the TMA for operating costs.  

This would be a great opportunity for those of you in church groups or other clubs to sell tickets to members of your clubs and even members of your community.  If you would like to receive quantities of tickets for selling, please contact me via email at dcapen[AT SIGN]myelitis.org.  I can also be reached by telephone at (909)658-2689.  You may also mail me a request.  My address is identified below.  I will be happy to send you batches of tickets.  Once you sell them, please have the person buying each ticket fill out the stub with their name and contact information and return the stub to you.  Have the buyer keep the larger portion of the ticket.  When you have completed the sale of all of your tickets, please send the stubs to me along with a check or checks made payable to The Transverse Myelitis Association.  Please write ‘Ann’s Quilt’ on the checks.  My address is identified below.

In order to make this easier for you to obtain tickets to sell or purchase, we will also have a link set up at the TMA website.  All that you will need to do is print the tickets from this link and do the same with these tickets as you would with the ones that I will be distributing.  All tickets will be put into a container, and there will be a drawing for the quilt.  This drawing will take place at a meeting of TMA members in Southern California on Saturday, May 31, 2003.    To be included in the drawing, I must receive your stubs by Saturday, May 24th.

If you have any questions, please contact me either by email, letter or telephone.  Please, if you have access to a computer, look at the picture of Ann’s quilt.  It truly is beautiful. We thank Ann for all of her hard work in putting this together and we thank all of the people that contributed their squares.  

Deborah Capen
P.O. Box 2084
Hemet, CA  92546
(909)658-2689
dcapen[AT SIGN]myelitis.org

Top of page
Go to Next Page
Go to Previous Page
Go to Newsletter Index
Go to Main Page

Help support the TMA
in our mission to advocate
for those with rare neuroimmunologic disorders.

 Make a Donation