Diana’s Golden Needle

Diana with the first twin-sized quilt for her Gold Award project

I want to tell you about an extraordinary young woman I know. She has a big smile and an even bigger heart. Diana is a ninth grader in a school near me, active in many sports, including cross country, basketball, and track. She’s been a Girl Scout since first grade; her mother is in my quilt guild, and has always been her leader. She learned to sew when she was 10, and has done little projects here and there ever since. Now, she’s embarking on a huge project: The Girl Scout Gold Award.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest achievement in Girl Scouts. It requires a minimum of 80 hours of paperwork, planning, and doing the project. “I will definitely exceed this,” says Diana. “For my Gold Award, I will be promoting community awareness about the needs for foster care.” She is also making twin sized quilts for teens who “age out” of the foster care program through Barium Springs Home for Children in North Carolina. 

 Diana with her mentor, Toni-Ann Pfeiffer, volunteer coordinator at Barium Springs

Diana chose this project for her gold award because her parents adopted her from an orphanage in Russia in 2001, when she was 14 months old. By 2017, Diana is going to make 16 twin-sized quilts for the 16 years she has lived in the United States, plus 10 baby quilts to send to her orphanage in Russia.

“It would mean a lot to me if I could help kids who weren’t as fortunate as me,” says Diana. “Aging out means that they are age 18 and they are an adult now, and will be on their own.  Each year approximately 500 teens age out of the foster care system in North Carolina alone.”

Bonnie K. Hunter generously gave Diana the rights to use her pattern, “Scrappy Trips Around the World.” “I really like this pattern name because my parents had to go around the world for us to become a family,” Diana says. “It is a fun block to make and you can use up lots of scraps. I am really excited about this project!”

To learn more, and to follow her progress, follow Diana’s Golden Needle on Facebook.

Want to help? Diana needs 42 blocks for each twin size quilt.You can help my making blocks, sewing them together into a quilt, donating fabric, cutting fabric strips, or doing longarm quilting. Or focus on the awareness part of Diana’s project, by spreading the news about the importance of foster care and adoption. But before you jump in, please message Diana via her Facebook page to find out exactly what she needs! 

Adoption is an issue near and dear to my heart, because I have two wonderful nieces who joined our family through adoption!