Almond Country Quilt Guild gave $3,000 to the Cancer Support Community California Central Coast and RISE

PASO ROBLES—On Monday, Jan. 3, the Almond Country Quilt Guild gathered for their monthly meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church in Paso Robles. On top of their regular quilting meeting, they also awarded two local non-profits with donations raised at their yearly quilt auction.

“We have a yearly auction where members of our guild make quilts and various other things. So we have a live and a silent auction,” Cindy Ursprung, this year’s co-chair at the guild auction, said. “We were not able to have one last year, obviously, so this year we had a plethora of quilts, which was just fabulous.”

The auction, which was held on Nov. 6, 2021, brought in a whopping total of $9,000. While one-third of the profits raised stay with the guild for funding classes and the quilts they make for foster care children in SLO County, the rest is given to local non-profits.

“It went very well,” Ursprung said of the auction’s success.

This year the Almond Country Quilt Guild gave $3,000 to both the Cancer Support Community California Central Coast (CSC-CCC) in Templeton and RISE. The non-profits change yearly.

“I’m a cyclist, and we always have a bike ride for the Cancer Center, and they weren’t able to have them for the last couple of years. They’re completely funded by donations. And I think everybody has been touched by cancer at some point in their lives. And the fact that they do everything for free is just wonderful,” Ursprung said of this year’s recipient. “And then because we are a group of women, RISE is also very important to everyone.”

Candice Sanders was at the meeting to receive the $3,000 donation to CSC-CCC. “All of our funding comes through donations from businesses, grants, wonderful organizations like the Almond Country Quilt Guild, as well as our fundraisers that we host each year,” she said.

The organization focuses on the social and emotional impacts of a cancer diagnosis, with all of its programs being led by licensed therapists. CSC-CCC provides all of its services to the community for free. So the $3,000 will go a long way.

“This $3,000 will definitely go into helping develop and continue our programs,” added Sanders. “All of our proceeds stay in San Luis Obispo County, so they do stay local!”

If you’re interested in becoming a part of the Almond Country Quilt Guild, you can join them every first Monday of the month at 7 pm at Trinity Lutheran Church in Paso Robles. Quilters, people interested in quilting, and sewers are all welcome.