WILLIAMSON CO. (WSIL) -- A group of quilters is working hard to say thank you and give back to our local veterans.

The Little Egypt Quilters are joining forces with Quilts of Valor, a national foundation whose mission is to cover service members and veterans touched by war.

Ann Collins, Group Leader for Little Egypt Quilters, says, "So many of them feel unwelcomed and unappreciated and this is just our way of saying thank you and to honor them for what they've done for us."

The Little Egypt Quilters started last June and have already awarded 25 quilts to local veterans.

"Little Egypt's goal is to cover every veteran from Mt. Vernon to Cairo." , states Collins.

Mary Helen McGreevy, a group member, elaborates, "We have given to veterans from all of our wars, we've touched them all down here and like Anne had said earlier we're going to do an award on February 1 at our sew in."

February 1st is National Sew Day and Little Egypt quilters are inviting everyone to come and join them at John A. Logan College to help with the cause.

Collins says, "Bring your machine, bring your stash of red, white and blues. If you don't sew that's fine too because we will find something for you do to."

Lori Christakos, Co-leader, explains, "There's cutting, there's measuring, there's ironing, there's helping."

The quilts are all personally delivered with a special label stating who made the quilt and who it was awarded to.

Christakos says, "it's fabulous to do it, you can just see the warmth coming out of them because we're giving it to them. It's just great, it really is, you can tell that they totally appreciate it."

McGreevy states, "The veteran is very close to my heart, the people that I served with and those that I lost so this is part of me giving back."

Sew-in day is February 1st at John A. Logan College. For more information on the event or how you can get involved with the Little Egypt Quilters click here. You can also contact Ann Collins at lequilters2019@yahoo.com .