Join us as we honor local Veterans this Veterans Day, Saturday November 11 2023. The program will include eleven Veterans receiving quilts from the Quilt of Valor program, Sponsored by Sunshine Stitches.  Lunch will follow from Beef-a-Roo.

Who: Veterans Memorial Hall and Museum and Sunshine Stitches
Where: Veterans Memorial Hall 211 N. Main St. Rockford, Illinois 61101
When: Saturday, November 11th 2023- 11 AM
What: Veterans Day Ceremony

Please join us on Saturday, November 11th at Veterans Memorial Hall for our annual Veterans’ Day Celebration and luncheon. Doors open at 10:30 AM and we will begin our celebration at 11 o’clock with a Proclamation by Winnebago County Board Chairman Joseph V. Chiarelli
Boone County Quilt of Valor coordinator Shelley Johnson along with Winnebago County Quilt of Valor coordinator Jacquie Becker will present eleven Veterans with quilts. Sunshine Stitches will display a special selection of quilts for the event. Sunshine Stitches is a small shop offering fabrics, quilting and sewing supplies, crafts, classes and longarm quilting services.
A Quilt of Valor® (QOV) is a quality, handmade quilt that is machine or hand quilted. It is awarded to a Service Member or Veteran who has been touched by war. The Quilt says unequivocally, “Thank you for your service and sacrifice in serving our nation.” To use the term Quilt of Valor, Quilts of Valor or QOV, the quilt must be a specific size, must have a label with required information, it must be awarded (it is not a gift) and it must be recorded.
Why: In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations… An Act approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday—a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as “Armistice Day.” Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history. Then 83rd Congress, at the urging of the Veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting in its place the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American Veterans of all wars