FORT LUPTON - Miracles come in times of their own choosing, some in the nick of time.
    No one knows that better than Wilma and Kyle Hamilton, who are responsible for quite a few miracles of their own throughout the world as the spark behind Kidz Quiltz in Fort Lupton.
    Keeping children warm and secure is the mission here, no small task as president and founder Wilma will tell you, just before she hands the credit over to the ‘awesome’ people she says make it all happen. Based solely on volunteer and community service hours, (more than 5,500 volunteer hours logged in 2010) Kidz Quiltz is a powerhouse of altruism big and small.

    The idea came to Wilma following Hurricane Katrina, when Lyle, a long-haul truck driver, went with a church group from the Worship Center to Mississippi, three weeks after the storm. Overwhelmed by pictures of the devastation, Wilma began making quilts for the kids who had lost everything, starting with a single handmade item.
    “The day they came back from their trip down to Mississippi, I met a girl in Brighton, and she said, “I have been evacuated, and now I am at Lowry (AFB).” Wilma said. “She was a friend with our youth pastor back in North Dakota years and years ago.”
    Lee Chapman, the woman that Wilma connected with, lost everything in the hurricane, as did her two-year old niece in Waveland, Miss. Wilma took it upon herself to sew a replacement, and after showing the finished product to Lyle, found herself facing a challenge.
    “You need to make a quilt for every kid in Waveland,” Lyle told her. “They lost everything, they have nothing.”
    Wilma took on the challenge, enlisting some friends along the way, an effort that blossomed into a huge undertaking that grew bigger over the next several months.
    “It went from one, to ten, to a hundred, to a thousand,” Wilma said. “So I said, O.K., we will make a thousand quilts, and send them to Mississippi.”
    Despite the daunting prospects, the Hamiltons and their cadre of volunteers pressed on.        “I had no organization, I had nothing. I had an ironing board, one old sewing machine and a ping pong table in my basement for cutting,” Wilma said. “But over the next 18 moths, Lyle and I made six trips to Mississippi, and we delivered over a thousand quilts to Mississippi.”
    The delivery was a miracle that came to the Hamiltons on 18 wheels.
    “I was driving over the road delivering milk from Platteville at the organic dairy,” Lyle said. “The boss (Kevin Rupp of Kevin Rupp Trucking) said, “You get them boxed up, and we’ll put them in the front of the trailer, and I will get you a load down to that area.” That’s how we got them there.”
    “There was a little lady at Warm Hearts, Warm Babies in Brighton that said she had better show me how to make more than one quilt at a time,” Wilma said. “I went over there and they cut out 36 quilts in the next couple hours. That lady went back to Greeley, and out of the thousand quilts that went to Mississippi, they made over 250, these little ladies from Greeley.”
    Existing these days largely on grants, donations and community support, the early days were financed solely by the Hamiltons.
    “I took $500 and I went to the store, and I bought a bunch
of material,” Wilma said. “I have always been sewing, so I had lots of thread, scissors, stuff like that at my house. We went through that pretty quickly, sewing eight hours a day.”
    Wilma made flyers, distributing then throughout the area, asking for help to get 1,000 quilts to kids in Mississippi.
    “People just started calling me and donating material, and batting, and saying “Ok, let me take this material home,” or “How many can I make for you?’ It kind of just grew from there to where we are today.”
    Where they are today is incredible, having delivered over 3,400 quilts (so far) to dozens of organizations, from local food banks to international relief organizations. Pretty decent for a volunteer organization founded in a basement.
    “We actually did it out of our basement for about a year,” Wilma said. “My brother had this building and it was listed for sale. We came and looked at it, and I said, “That’s the building I want.”
    Moving in as renters in 2006, Kidz Quiltz occupied the building until 2009, when the building looked like it might sell. Unable to move the property, it was offered back to the Hamiltons.
    “He came back with a really super deal, and said, “You’re the only one who really wants that building, so if I cut the price and we do this and that, will you buy it?” Wilma said. “God actually gave us this building. Officially, we just paid off the building, and it’s ours now. ”
    What does it take to pay off a commercial building in two years?
    “Fundraisers,” Lyle said. “Lots and lots of fundraisers. Every now and then we send a letter out for donations, hate to do it, but what else can you do?”
    Kidz Quiltz currently works with the nonprofit Worldvision, who cost-effectively deliver the quilts to those most in need across the nation and around the world. A recent shipment included some 350 items to children displaced by the devastating Joplin, Miss. tornado in May.
    “We use Worldvision because I can just put them (quilts) in my truck and take them to Denver,” Lyle said.
    “They took them to Haiti for us, and they took 450 to Eastern Europe,” Wilma added. “We can’t just throw 450 in a container and take them to Eastern Europe.”
    For info on Kidz Quiltz, or would like to make a much-needed donation, visit them at www.kidzquiltz.homestead.com, or follow Kidzquiltz.blogspot.com.