Fabric of time: School honors local quilter

By: Donathan Prater Staff Writer | OANow.com
Published: February 27, 2009

The quilt in the activity room of Loachapoka Elementary School Thursday has more than a dozen sections, each bearing a unique family story. It serves as a textile testament to artistic expression that grew out of basic necessity.

Local quilter Mozell Benson, 75, worked with a group of 2nd- through 6th-grade students, parents and school administrators to make the quilt last year as part of an activity funded through a grant from PACERS, a non-profit rural association committed to sustaining and celebrating rural communities and rural public schools.

Benson, a Lee County native, was honored at a luncheon at the Lee County school Thursday on what was declared Mozell Benson Day by Loachapoka Principal Mary Ross.

The quilt’s sections told colorful stories, such as one entitled “Surgery in the Kitchen,” which tells about how a Loachapoka student’s grandmother had her tonsils removed in the family kitchen as a little girl.

And then there’s the one called “Babies, Chickens and Quilts,” which chronicles Benson’s own experience growing up on a farm as the youngest of 10 siblings.

Benson worked on the quilt with her granddaughter, Ashlee, 12, a 6th grader.

“This is a wonderful collaborative effort between our Loachapoka Pacers Chapter and the community,” Ross said.

While she’s not sure if working on the quilting project has spawned the next generation of quilters, there is one certainty.

“There’s nothing like a good, warm quilt,” Benson said. “I hope these students continue to quilt, not so they’ll simply have it as a skill for themselves, but so they can share that skill with others, because sharing with others is how you truly become rich.”