The Resort Quilt Club

Honoring Those Who Served

by Dale Dauten

We recently got to sit down with two members of the Resort Quilt Club and it got us looking back to the last time we wrote about quilting. That was two years ago and in the accompanying photos everyone was wearing a mask — it was the start of the pandemic and even getting together to take photos seemed daring. We also reviewed the lighthearted list of the “rules of quilting,” which included our favorite: “Don’t bleed on the quilt.” Ouch.

If you don’t follow quilting, there are two groups within The Resort where quilters can put their talents to use: the aforementioned Resort Quilt Club, and also the Crafty Ladies, who do quilts mainly for the low-income housing at La Mesita. We’ll be posting an update on that group’s impressive efforts in an upcoming edition of The Resorter, but today we focus on the work of the Quilt Club, and their recognition of the park’s veterans. One of the Club’s goals is to honor the veterans with a Quilt of Honor (QOH), or for our veterans “touched by war,” the club provides what they call a Quilt of Valor (QOV).

In the photo below, we see a sample of their work. That’s Linda Pleva on the right and Kathy Ricke on the left, co-chairs of the club’s committee to recognize veterans for their service. Between them is a quilt top that Linda made, that will be presented to a veteran in an upcoming presentation.

Here’s how the program works: Any veteran who resides in the park and who has not received a quilt is invited to see Linda or Kathy. The veterans are asked for a brief bio of themselves and their service. Once that’s returned, they are added to a list, and a number of members will ultimately be involved in the quilting process. The finished quilt is presented at the QOH Presentation event organized by the Activities Office (who provide the planning for the ballroom gathering, including coffee and donuts).

To fund their efforts, the club raffles off a quilt each season. This year’s quilt was made by Barb Beranek, and it will be raffled on March 8th. (Look for QOH/QOV patriotic signage when looking to purchase tickets.)

Kathy Ricke mentioned that some veterans express doubts about being recognized, knowing that others sacrificed far more. She said of that feeling, “They all deserve recognition, no matter how they served; after all, they gave up part of their lives.”

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION: LINDA & KATHY

We always like to learn a bit about the leaders of the park’s volunteer groups. That’s Linda Pleva, left, and Kathy Ricke.

We wondered how they came to co-chair the committee and Linda recounted how it all started; “Last year, Mary Schultz, who was then the QOH chair, said in a club meeting that she needed some help. Both Kathy and I raised our hands. Mary had been working on the committee for 10 years and was ready to step down and let others have the opportunity. We want to thank Mary for her 10 years of service for the Veterans.”

KATHY RICKE (pronounced “Ricky”)

Like so many park residents, Kathy is from Minnesota; specifically, from Marshall. She married her husband Tim, a mechanical engineer, and they had four kids (and now have three grandchildren). Along the way, she graduated from Concordia College in St. Paul and had a career as a paralegal, working for a law firm, a hedge fund, and for the last five years of working, an insurance company. She retired in 2020.

Asked how she came to The Resort, she smiled and said, “Like everyone else.” And she went on to explain the web of connections with other residents that brought her for visits: “I had a brother and a sister and a cousin living in the park. We visited in 2017 and then bought in 2020.”

LINDA PLEVA

Linda grew up in Granger, Iowa and received her Associate Degree in Business and continued at Iowa State University, then working at Principal Financial Group. Her husband, Randy, graduated from Delaware Valley University with a degree in Agronomy. Randy worked in a mushroom farm in Pennsylvania, then started his own farm in Iowa. Linda and Randy met at her farm machinery sale in 1986 and married later that year, creating a blended family of five kids. Randy’s mushroom experience moved them to Brush Prairie, Washington and Linda’s management job with Principal Financial Group moved them to Monument, Colorado, then Portland, then Cumming, Iowa, where she retired after 24 years. Over the years, they have traveled to all 50 states together, either for their jobs or in their RV.

Randy and Linda started visiting Linda’s parents at The Resort in 1989 and became winter residents in 2013.

Photo: Linda and Randy Pleva, Kathy and Tim Ricke