By DAISY WASHINGTON / Community Columnist

Whether it was to fight back a chill in the air or just to cozy up beside a loved one, most people have experienced the comforting embrace of a quilt.

The brainchild and founder of Quilts for Kids (Q4K), Linda Arye, has done just that for children with life-threatening illnesses as well as children of abuse for nearly two decades.

It distributes 30,000 quilts annually, and between 2000 and 2016, totaled about 200,000. Headquartered in Pennsylvania, Q4K has 98 sister chapters throughout North America and the Bahamas.

The Alabama chapter was established in 2010. Chapter Co-Leaders are Agnes Poole and Sheila Gallups.

Agnes is an Alabama State Council on the Arts Master Quilter and teaches a quilting class of eight students (two of which are males).

The chapter meets at the Columbiana Public Library each Saturday for its quilting session. Approximately 12 members come together to create patchwork quilts.

The chapter produces around 15 quilts every few months.

Quilts range in various sizes depending upon whether the recipient is a child or teenager. Child quilts are sent to Mobile and Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital.

King’s Home (Foster Care facility) receives the teen-sized quilts.

Thirty-five quilts were sent via UPS to Pennsylvania Headquarters for the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

The chapter also donated quilts to Florida’s Hurricane Irma victims.

The Alabama chapter distributed 175 quilts in 2017; 2000 since its inception in 2010.