FLW Outdoors and several local organizations recently prepared a care package of pillow cases for shipment to Iraq to members of the National Guard. Women of the Marshall County Needlechasers Quilt Guild, Tuesday Night Strippers and Hookers, and Olive United Methodist Church, all capable quilters and seamstresses, were asked by the local family readiness group in Benton, Ky., to prepare 120 pillow cases. Gladly, they met the request and far surpassed it by stitching up 219 pillow cases. FLW Outdoors then paid to ship them overseas.

The goal of the care package is to provide troops with a little piece of home and moral support while they’re away. The ladies used colorful materials printed with deer, bass, college and sports team logos, sports cars, and other designs. As Kentuckians, the soldiers will no doubt try to nab the lone University of Kentucky pillow case. Any remaining pillow cases will be distributed to other troops.

The average pillow case requires 1 yard of fabric, and most of the fabric used cost between $7 and $10. It takes approximately 45 minutes to make each one. One local woman even produced a whopping 40 pillow cases.

FLW Outdoors President of Operations Kathy Fennel, FLW Community Outreach organizer Allie Gibbs, and Lisa Lenear, an accountant with FLW and mother of one of the soldiers on deployment, all attended a presentation ceremony at the Benton, Ky., National Guard armory, where the pillow cases were boxed and handed over to Staff Sgt. Frank Murphy.