Voluminous volunteering

Paulson to receive Outstanding Senior Volunteer Award from Region 9

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- When it comes to volunteering, that little pink battery-powered Energizer bunny has nothing on Lettie Paulson.

At the age 80, Paulson keeps on going and going.

She went skydiving twice, cared for her own daughter and three husbands, built her own deck out of wood, and moved 4 tons of rock to landscape her back yard. She has also sewn more than 700 quilts, mostly for patients at Gillette Children's Healthcare in Minneapolis.

For her efforts, Paulson has received a fair share of awards, which line one wall of her New Ulm home. There's one from the hospital, the Jefferson-Good People award from KEYC-TV in Mankato, her G.E.D., a certificate, a Red Cross award from 1971, two citations from the Golden Poet, a merit award from World of Poetry magazine and the certificate from her carpentry school.

Later this week, Paulson will have another award for her wall. She is one of four area seniors that is going receive Region Nine Development Commission's outstanding senior volunteer award in North Mankato on Friday, May 7.

Rhonda Fjeldberg, grant and contract manager for Region Nine, said one thing that made Paulson an attractive candidate is that she "really lines up to the theme of this year's award, which is 'Volunteers Inspire by Example'."

To Fjeldberg, there is a whole list of things that make Paulson a great candidate for the award. She's made outstanding quilts, Fjeldberg said, "which in and of itself is pretty unbelievable." Paulson has also volunteered with the Red Cross, Head Start and worked as a home health care aide.

Because she started parachuting at age 65 and received her high school diploma at age 69, she's an inspiration for other older adults, Fjeldberg said.

Paulson got the letter from Region Nine a couple days before her 80th birthday.

"It was a wonderful birthday present," Paulson said of the award.

Paulson is from a family of 13 children. She grew up in northern Iowa during the Great Depression. She dropped out of school because she was embarrassed about her shabby clothes. During World War II, she worked as a nurse's aide at St. Barnabas Hospital in Minneapolis during the day and then soldered airplane parts for Honeywell at night.

She first began sewing quilts during the time when her first husband was diagnosed with cancer.

Paulson began sewing for therapy and found it helped her deal with situation. She managed to figure out how to do it all by herself.

By her own estimate, Paulson has sewn more than 700 quilts, using mostly donated materials. Many were donated to Gillette Children's Healthcare in Minneapolis. She estimates that she spends in between eight and 12 hours a day working on her sewing and can complete a quilt in two days. Paulson originally planned to stop making quilts after 700, but now thinks she'll quit at 1,000 even though she's sure donated materials will still keep rolling in after that point.

"I made a pact with God," she said. "As long as he'd keep me healthy, I'd keep sewing. So I don't dare quit."

Of all the donated time and effort, one quilt comes to Paulson's mind. It was her 200th, and it was given to a young girl who was then a patient at Gillette. On her way up to the ward, the hospital staff told Paulson the girl had never smiled. Paulson handed the girl a quilt with a teddy bear on it and told her 'You can tell it all your secrets as long as you want to." The girl smiled.

"And tears started rolling down my cheeks," Paulson said.

When Paulson reached her 500th quilt, the staff at Gillette threw her a party, complete with a cake that had 'You Sew So Good' written on it. The hospital still sends copies of letters that people send, telling about how wonderful their children feel when they receive one of Paulson's quilts.

Quilts aren't the only thing that Paulson has figured out. For many years, she also made wedding cakes. She also has a photo of the back deck from her old home in Madelia, which she designed and built out of wood. She once sawed stones and made jewelry from them. Her latest project is the landscaping in her back yard, which involved hauling and spreading 4 tons of river rock and installing paver blocks.

Her private and professional lives have also required some heavy lifting. Paulson cared for her daughter for nearly four years after doctors gave her daughter three months to live following a diagnosis of cancer. Paulson has lost all three of her husbands to the disease. She took care of cancer patients and people with eye disorders during her 12 years as a home health aide.

All of those stories and more are going into a book Paulson is writing, titled "One Woman's Factory," that chronicles her life.