Submitted Photo Sharleen Larson speaks at the podium as Lynn Heald, center, and Luanne Duchsherer, right, present veteran Rex Sisco with a Quilt of Valor on Tuesday.

A Quilt of Valor, crafted by area children at Magic City Discovery Center, was gifted to veteran Rex Sisco by members of Peace and Honor Quilts of Valor at a ceremony Tuesday at the discovery center.

Sisco is a retired Air Force master sergeant who served from Dec. 5, 1966-Sept. 30, 1991. Sisco trained as a reciprocating aircraft mechanic, then retrained to ICBM Minuteman Missiles maintenance. He served during the Vietnam era and Gulf War and currently lives in Minot.

The mission of The Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor. A Quilt of Valor is a quality, handmade quilt that is machine or hand quilted. It is awarded to a service member or veteran who has been touched by war. The quilt says, “Thank you for your service and sacrifice in serving our nation.”

Veterans and service members must receive a nomination approved by the foundation to be awarded a quilt.

“We are all here because we are patriots, because we want to share the talents that we have with the people who are guarding our freedoms,” Lynn Heald, the Peace and Honor Quilts of Valor Minot Program chair, said at the ceremony. “Sometimes our quilts are given directly to a military veteran or service member, but our volunteers look forward to thanking veterans in person at ceremonies like this one today. We tell our veterans and service members, we put the fabric together, you guys are the thread. Nobody sees what you do, but you hold us together.”