The Stumptown Quilters Society is adding some color and fundraising muscle to this year’s Wings radiothon to help cancer patients.

The quilters have created a king-sized quilt that will be raffled; all proceeds will go to Wings.

Wings is a local nonprofit group that provides cancer patients with money for out-of-pocket expenses, such as meals, lodging or gas, incurred while traveling to receive medical treatment.

The radiothon fundraiser is Thursday and Friday, Jan. 14-15, based at the Sportsman and Ski Haus store in Hutton Ranch Plaza in Kalispell. Phones will be staffed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Donors can call 257- WING or stop by the Sportsman to make pledges. The event will be broadcast on all Bee Broadcasting stations.

All of the money raised goes to local cancer patients.

THE QUILT, which measures 92 by 102 inches, was inspired by and includes McKenna Ryan “Faith, Hope, Love” art quilt series blocks, with a  “Faith” block signed by Ryan.

The fabric is from Ryan’s exclusive fabric line.

The blocks were completed by Stumptown guild members and were pieced by Syl Trundle. Becky Jacobson handled the quilting and Judy Brunty did the binding.

The guild will sell only 200 tickets at $20 apiece, for a total of $4,000 to be given to Wings. Checks should be made out to Wings. The drawing will take place Jan. 15. To buy tickets, e-mail Trundle at trundle@centurytel.net.

Over the past 13 years, Wings has given out 1,978 grants to patients totaling more than $1 million.

“Wings has been a blessing to all of us,” said Ray Washtak, who helped found the event in the mid-1990s.

He recalls a January 1995 visit with Jennifer Schaffner, now director of case management and social services at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

“My visit was prompted by a decision and a promise to myself and God when I was going through cancer treatment, that if I survived the two bone-marrow transplants and high doses of experimental chemotherapy and radiation, I would help others in some way and somehow,” Washtak recalled.

He told Schaffner how touched he had been by the generous outpouring of financial, emotional and spiritual help he had received during 14 months of treatment.

Washtak wanted to give back, and before long radiation oncologist Dr. Barbara Gutschenritter was involved in the effort and several hospital staff members were sitting at a round-table to talk about “how we all could help.”

Wings materialized as a nonprofit group over the next five months.

As organizers looked at a map of Montana and drew hypothetical lines of coverage to Libby, Troy, Eureka, Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell and Bigfork, Libby cancer patient Connie Woods remarked that the lines looked like they formed eagle wings.

“Hence the name Wings came to be, with the goal of lifting up and helping our neighbors in their time of need,” Washtak said.

Woods continues to organize Wings Week in Libby each May, while North Valley Hospital sponsors a breast-cancer awareness luncheon in Eureka each year, with all funds donated to Wings. The Eureka luncheon was the brainchild of Lincoln County Commissioner Marianne Roose, who dedicates the annual event to her mother who died of breast cancer.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com