By Cindi Hamar
For The New Era
Dean Hummer is on a quest to give baby quilts to as many little ones as possible.
Hummer has made and donated over 3,100 quilts throughout Linn and Benton Counties over a 22-year period. She said she loves to see babies carrying her quilts, snuggled up warm and feeling the love they were made with.
“I made all my grandkids quilts and thought, ‘there are a lot of babies that could use them,’” Hummer said. “I remember seeing a nurse with her 6-year-old child that was still carrying a quilt I had made and it just warmed my heart.”
Hummer, 81 years young, has donated 130-150 on average quilts per year for 22 years which totals out to 3,100 to 3,300 quilts; all are free donations. Her mother taught her how to quilt.
Hummer’s mother taught her how to sew at 6 years of age on a treadmill sewing machine. It takes 3 yards of flannel with batting and she spends approximately 3 1/2 hours per quilt. Hummer will continue as long as she can get the flannel in bulk. She was buying in bulk from Joanne’s fabric store, but now that it is going out of business she is unsure how long she will be able to continue finding flannel in bulk for reasonable prices.
She would be willing to accept donations of material. She said she never expected to make so many quilts and do it for so long but she gets so much pleasure from giving them.
Hummer has no intention of stopping, she said, adding that she plans to continue as long as she can get the flannel.
Hummer was born in Catsville, Mo. She has lived in Sweet Home for over 60 years, though at various times. She attended first grade in Sweet Home but then the family moved 12 times.
Eventually, she returned to Sweet Home and enrolled in Sweet Home High School, then married her husband, Don Hummer. They had three boys, Steve, Ricky and Gary, and six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
She is no stranger to volunteering. She said it all began when she was an employee at the paper mill and was active in fundraising for United Way and that is when she began donating quilts. She has never stopped.Not only does she make quilts she is a volunteer at SHEM three days per week.
Hummer has donated to the following organizations: Sweet Home Emergency Ministries SHEM, Sweet Home Pregnancy Center, Sweet Home Fired Department, CASA Corvallis, CASA Linn County, FISH Lebanon, FISH Albany, ABRIA Medical Center, and both Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence Centers in Corvallis.
The biggest challenge, she said, “is making enough for all the places that need them.”