The Church News is featuring "Relief Society Moments" in commemoration of the organization's 150th anniversary, March 17, 1992, to highlight acts of service through Relief Society.

Martha seemed right at home in front of the group as she warmly thanked the sisters from the Mesa Arizona North Stake for the beautiful quilt she had received from them. She had chosen the "green one" because her 8-year-old son was a Ninja Turtle fan and it would mean a lot to him.Martha and her family, living in the Family Emergency Service Center in Mesa, was just one of many families to receive quilts as part of a quilting marathon held in the stake center to kickoff Relief Society sesquicentennial service projects.

About 150 Relief Society sisters willingly donated supplies and worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. during the marathon to make 85 quilts. The highlight of the day came when several families living in the center came to choose quilts to keep for themselves.

Martha was touched to see so many women willing to give up a day to provide something of such lasting beauty and warmth as a homemade quilt. She had long been a recipient of others "cast-off" goods, keenly aware she was given what somebody no longer wanted. To be the recipient of arduous effort in her behalf - having surveyed the cultural hall filled to capacity with quilting frames and busy women - created a desire within her, she later confided, to overcome all dependencies in her life by qualifying herself to someday be among those on the giving end.

Through a column in the newspaper, community members were invited to watch or participate in the quilting marathon. One such visitor was in awe, asking "How do you inspire women to come out in such numbers?"

From that day on, with the project dramatically introduced, the desire to become involved as wards and individuals was awakened within many. Each ward began reaching out to others in need. The quilting marathon had the unexpected effect of creating ever-widening circles of charitable acts of love and concern, expanding the concept of sisterhood.

Through the project, the sisters have been able to identify with the goals of the sisters in the early days of the Church to "act in the name of the Lord - to relieve the wants of the distressed, and do all the good we can." - Sherri Zirker, Mesa (Ariz.) 22nd Ward

(Another in a series of "Relief Society Moments." Illustration by Deseret News artist Reed McGregor.)