PVQA Education Chairperson Pam Rocco is looking for a few good men/women to help spread the fun of quilting to school children within our community. Pam has kits available and experience galore, all you need is the ability to sew and the desire to help. Interested? Call Pam Rocco (831-713-5487) and she’ll fill you in on the details.

The Palo Alto Veteran’s Hospital in association with Stanford University is conducting two clinical studies for Alzheimer’s Disease research in 2012, and they would like to give a quilt to each participant in the studies as a way to thank them. The participants don’t receive any money for being in the study. These studies are focused on ways to help patients suffering from symptoms of sleep deprivation and agitation that are associated with memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.

The researcher in charge of these studies says that most of his participants are male veterans, 55 years and older, and he thinks that they would appreciate patriotic themed quilts, but any type of new quilt would be much appreciated.

The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study at the University of California, San Diego, is funded by the NIH to conduct Alzheimer’s research nationwide.

Since beginning their Alzheimer’s Study Quilt Project in January of 2010, over 1300 quilts have been received and distributed to the study participants following an ad placed in the AARP Bulletin. However, the group is now in need of additional quilts so they can continue to provide quilts to the study participants. PVQA has been asked to make a few quilts for them.

The PVQA contact for these quilts is Sue Costa. She can be reached via e-mail at suecosta@verizon.net. You can also bring a quilt to any PVQA meeting and give it to any Apple Piecers group member. Sue will deliver them to Palo Alto for you. There is no specific deadline, but please contact Sue if you would like to donate a quilt for this project.

Quilts should be:

• New and lap sized, approximately 40” wide and 45” to 50” long. A little larger or smaller is fine.
• Made of 100% cotton.
• Any design, pattern, or batting. The study participants are both men and women so a variety of colors works best.
• Or a “themed” quilt specifically for a woman or a man.
• Quilts should be non-denominational; we don’t know the faiths of the patients.
• There is no deadline. Whenever you can make and send a quilt will be fine.
• Some quilters have put labels on the back with their name and city thanking the recipient for participating in Alzheimer’s research, but that is optional. No label is necessary or required.

In addition to the Stanford study, quilts may also be distributed to the research study sites located throughout the US and Canada when they are notified of newly enrolled participants. If you wish your quilt to go to one of these other locations, they can be mailed to:

Jeffree Itrich
Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study
UCSD
8950 Villa La Jolla Dr., Ste C-227
La Jolla, CA 92037-1712