WAILUKU - Quilting for families of Maui's war dead has helped to heal the wounds that Paula Kalanikau has been carrying from her own soldier brother's death.
Kalanikau, 70, of Kihei, and members of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Wilbert W.H. Tom Post 3850 collaborated in creating handmade red, white and blue quilts for families of two Maui soldiers who died in the Iraq war.
Presentations were made recently to the Lahaina family of Jay Cajimat, a 20-year-old Army specialist killed by a roadside bomb on April 6, 2007. A second quilt was placed in the care of Maui High School where Army Pvt. Eugene Kanakaole graduated in 2007. Kanakaole died June 11, 2008, in a noncombat-related incident in Balad.
Kanakaole's foster parents, Jack and Herlinda Eades, were given a separate quilt to remember the teenage son they had for two years.
All of the quilts stem from the national Home of the Brave Quilt Project, first developed in 2004 by quilter and quilt historian Don Beld in Redlands, Calif. The project is privately financed and operated by volunteers.
As of this week, there have been almost 2,700 quilts delivered to 2,300 families across the country.
Hawaii has about two dozen troops who have died in either Iraq or Afghanistan. So far, about a dozen families in the state, including two on Maui, have been presented with quilts.
Kalanikau's brother, Army Pvt. Gilbert M. Travis, died at the age of 20 in ground combat on Oct. 7, 1952, during the Korean War. The Travis family was living on the Hamakua Coast of the Big Island at the time of the soldier's death.
"It was devastating," Kalanikau recalled. A teenager in 1952, she remembers two uniformed men coming to her family home with a letter informing her parents of her brother's death.
"I knew something was wrong," she said.
Travis received a Purple Heart medal posthumously for his service.
Late last summer, Kalanikau saw a TV news story about the Home of the Brave Quilt Project and its goal to present homemade quilts to every family of a service member who died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She said her family never got a quilt, but she wanted very much to do something special for Maui's most recent war dead.
"I was somehow inspired to do this," she said.
Members of her ladies auxiliary to the Maui Veterans of Foreign Wars agreed to support the project and together about 26 people helped make two quilts with monetary donations or hands-on help with fabric. The quilts are about 4 feet by 7 feet and are designed in an album-block pattern inspired by quilts made during the Civil War.
Kalanikau and her fellow auxiliary member Marlyn Dillon, who has since moved to the Mainland, took the lead in creating the quilts. Kalanikau also credits the assistance of staff from the Maui Quilt Shop, which helped with fabric selection, and Cathy Bento, a friend who also helped with the quilting work.
"All these stitches had a lot of love put into them," Kalanikau said. "It's not very much for the sacrifice they made for our country. I hope it'll comfort the families though. It certainly inspired me, and now I have a feeling of connection with these soldiers and their families."
Hawaii State Coordinator Dawn Kucera of the Home of the Brave Quilt Project was so touched by Kalanikau's generosity and effort, that she presented a smaller quilt to Kalanikau to honor Travis' sacrifice in the Korean War. The presentation was unexpected for Kalanikau.
"Oh, I was so touched," she said. "I think my brother would be proud."
Kalanikau said she's thinking about taking her own quilt gift and making it a prominent wall hanging in her home. She has instructed her family to use the quilt to comfort her should she fall ill at an older age.
"I want it to be with me when I'm ready to go," Kalanikau said.
Cajimat's family could not be reached for comment. Kucera said that the presentation, made earlier this year during a Veterans of Foreign Wars barbecue gathering in Kihei, was well received.
Kucera herself has delivered at least a dozen quilts to families in Hawaii. "It's almost always emotional," she said.
Jack Eades said that he and his wife were grateful to have received a quilt. "We just think it's a fantastic thing," Eades said.
Traci Rosario, a Maui High teacher who had Kanakaole as a student in a communication course, said she was happy to see him honored.
"He just turned out to be a really sweet guy," she said.
Rosario has stored Kanakaole's quilt in the school library but is searching for donations of wood, glass or money to purchase a display case.
"It's a beautiful way to honor his sacrifice," she said.
Eades said representatives of the quilt project urged families to use the quilt at their will. "My wife uses it as a lap blanket. It helps us to keep him close," Eades said.
Quilts in the Home of the Brave Project are made by volunteers and quilters in respective states across the country.
A quilt for the family of Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor of Lahaina, the first Maui soldier to die in Iraq, was presented in California where his wife, Kelly Jean, and his son, Kyle, reside.
Kucera said there are plans to give a quilt to the family of Spc. Christopher Sweet, of Kahului, who died Feb. 6 - on his 28th birthday - in Kirkush, Iraq.
For more information, visit homeofthebravequiltshawaii.org.
* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.
