About Aussie Hero Quilts (and laundry bags)
Aussie Heroes has been up and running since January 2012 but it began with Jan-Maree Ball sending quilts and laundry bags, with the help of her quilt group, to one particular soldier and his team in late 2011.
Our Mission:
That nobody who serves Australia feels unsupported or believes that their service is not valued, recognised or appreciated.
These days quilts and laundry bags are mailed mostly in response to requests we receive from serving members or their loved ones. I also have other avenues to send items as well.
We have every sort of woman you can imagine, married, single, Mums, Grandmas, wives and mothers of serving members, ex-serving members, wives of Vietnam Vets – you name it, as well as a few men. Everyone donates their time and materials because they think it is important and appropriate to get behind our serving men and women and say thank you.
Our Core Values
Our Mission
That nobody who serves Australia feels unsupported or believes that their service is not valued, recognised or appreciated.
Our Vision
To proactively care for those who serve Australia, regardless of the politics or mission, through a team of volunteers creating quilts and laundry bags to show appreciation for service and sacrifice.
Our Motto
No one who serves Australia is alone.
Our Values
Service, Respect, Compassion, Commitment.
Our Story
How We Got Started
There are three main reasons I felt the need to do something to give back to our Defence force. I started Aussie Heroes for a number of reasons – I hated the way our Vietnam Veterans were treated. That can never be allowed to happen again. I heard of an Aussie soldier given a quilt by the Americans in Germany and was ashamed that there was not an Aussie Quilt for him. He now has one of ours and I have since met him and his wife many times and they tell me that he uses his quilt all the time. Finally, I just felt that we, the Aussie public, needed a way to say thank you to our Defence members for their service.
Where We Are Now
The Friends of Aussie Heroes are spread all over the country and we make quilts and laundry bags to send to serving members currently on certain deployments mostly in the Middle East, including selected ships currently deployed, but also on Peace Keeping Missions in South Sudan, Egypt, Israel and elsewhere. Our quilts and laundry bags are gifts to say thank you to the serving member for their service and the sacrifice that service asks of them and their families. We send items in response to requests from serving members or their loved ones – spouses, family members and friends. Many of our quilts are personalised though not all of them. Our quilts are not works of art, but works of the heart.
ALL QUILTS MADE SINCE 2011
ALL LAUNDRY BAGS SINCE 2011
QUILTS MADE IN 2024
LAUNDRY BAGS MADE IN 2024
GRAND TOTAL STAY MATS MADE
QUILTS MADE THIS WEEK
LAUNDRY BAGS MADE THIS WEEK
We’ve made over 16,000 quilts and 35,000 laundry bags to support our Aussie troops!
Aussie Heroes has been up and running since January 2012 but it began with me sending quilts and laundry bags, with the help of my quilt group, to one particular soldier and his team in late 2011.
I came across this fellow through his wife’s blog and reached out to them to see if there was something I could do to make his deployment a bit easier.
He felt a really useful gift would be a laundry bag. Sounds like such a little thing doesn’t it? Well not so. You see the serving personnel were all using the same laundry bags and that made it hard to find their own laundry bag in a hurry when they wanted it. Apparently emails go around each day saying “someone picked up my laundry bag”. This soldier’s wife made her husband a colourful one with large initials and the problem was solved for him…..but what of his men? So, Laundry Bags it was.
