CONWAY, Ark. (AETN) – “Quilts of Valor,” a film that documents the efforts of the Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOVF), a grassroots community service organization that has awarded nearly 65,000 quilts to America’s wounded veterans since 2003, will air on the Arkansas Educational Television Network (AETN) Saturday, Aug. 18, at 7 a.m. 

Highlights of the program include interviews with some of the foundation’s participating quilters and their recipients, delivery of the quilts and quilting celebrity coaches helping celebrity rookies make their first quilts. 

Host Marianne Fons of “Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting” kicks the program off by traveling to Anacortes, Wash., to interview QOVF founder Catherine Roberts, then journeys to Hunley, Ill., for a special “Weekend of Valor.” There, she follows Minnesota quilters on a bus trip to Texas to deliver quilts to more than 1,000 combat veterans at Fort Hudd and Fort Sam Houston. 

Viewers are also given first-hand insight into the making of a Quilt of Valor as quilting celebrity coaches Eleanor Burns of “Quilt in a Day,” Alex Anders of “The Quilt Show” and Mark Lipinski of “Quilt Out Load” help celebrity “rookies” – Olympic wrestler Dan Gable, “Lawrence Welk” star Mary Lou Metzger and Guardsman’s wife Heather Stephenson – make their first quilts. As the celebrity guests create their first quilt for a wounded warrior, viewers learn how enjoyable and rewarding quilting can be, even for beginners.