Whether it’s a plaque or a ceremony, people can be honored in many ways, but what about with a quilt?

That is exactly what the Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum did when the organization created the Women of Valor: The Legacy Quilt. The purpose of the museum is to preserve and collect the history of Jewish life in Georgia and Alabama, said Pat Pugrant, a volunteer and coordinator of the Women of Valor Quilt Program, and one way it is doing that is with the quilt.

“I began working on this project because I found there were many women who were ordinary folk in their time and did things that were needed in their community,” Pugrant said. “Nobody really honored them for the work they did and the role models they portrayed. So Sandy Breman, who is the archivist of the Breman Museum, asked me if I would do a quilt to honor these women.”

For the project, 11 women whose work occurred between 1850 and 1950 were chosen and put on the quilt, Pugrant said. As to why a quilt was chosen to represent the women and not in another way, there was a certain reason for it.

“We wanted something permanent so their legacy would perpetuate, it would continue,” Pugrant said. “What I have done is, I have traveled around since it was first introduced in 2004 to many different communities all over Georgia, North Carolina and Florida storytelling about these women. I’ve spoken to school groups, church groups, Synagogue groups, senior citizens, young children, anybody who would like to listen to me. I would relate the lives of these women to my audience, so everybody would see these women were actually role models, and they could think about them in their daily life and be able to be like them.”

Pugrant and the quilt first came in contact with Augusta State University when she contacted Reese Library looking for information about certain women, said Carol Waggoner-Angleton, the special collections assistant.

“Ms. Pugrant contacted us originally. She was doing research to do a similar type of quilt, and we worked on material on a Ms. Rose Nachman,” Waggoner-Angleton said. “(She) was active in Augusta (between) 1912 to 1940, especially the Augusta Women’s Club in some of the Jewish Synagogue circles. She was also fairly active in the women’s suffrage movement before 1920. In fact, that’s when her name first gets in the paper, she’s doing events and things to support passage of the 19th amendment.”

During this encounter the Women of Valor quilt came up, Waggoner-Angleton said. From there, its visit to Augusta State was scheduled.

“She mentioned the Women of Valor quilt, and I said ‘oh, that would be a wonderful thing to bring to Augusta’ and she goes, ‘oh, well I can do that, when do you want to do it?’” Waggoner-Angleton said. “So, we set it up for March specifically because March is Women’s History Month.”

On March 20, the quilt made its appearance at Reese Library, where Pugrant gave a presentation about the quilt. During her visit to Augusta State, Pugrant said she was excited to be at the University and give her traditional presentation about the quilt and the story boards for each of the women. But, she also had some more news to add to her presentation about a second quilt being made.

“We are going to (be) honoring someone on the second quilt who is from Augusta,” Pugrant said. “I’m very excited to be able to tell how people reached out and helped one another in the community because I know that theme permeates this quilt, and I know that people in Augusta are very kind and caring for one another.”

The woman on the second quilt will be Rose Nachman, the woman who put Pugrant in contact with Augusta State in the first place, and her work during the flood of 1929 will be featured, Pugrant said. This quilt will be completed around late summer or early fall, and the quilt is being made for a particular reason.

“It’s important to note the role of women because women didn’t get the right to vote,” Pugrant said. “It was very unusual for a woman to actually be able to speak out in public. So many of these women disregarded the fact that it wasn’t common practice and went ahead and did what they believed in because one person has to care for another.”

While Pugrant was looking forward to visiting Augusta, one person who was looking forward to hopefully seeing the quilt and learning about the idea behind it is Leah Ronen, the executive director of the Augusta Jewish Federation and the Augusta Jewish Community.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea; I think it’s fabulous,” Ronen said. “(I’m looking forward to) learning about who’s on it and why those particular women were chosen. I’m assuming because the Bremen Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum is in Atlanta, they focused on people who weren’t originally from Atlanta but ended up in Atlanta. Although I think it’s a wonderful idea and certainly because the museum is in Atlanta, it’s wonderful to focus on women of valor in the Atlanta area; I would love to see a follow up to that quilt.”

A follow up quilt is being made, and with this one, Ronen said she would like to see a broader variety of women on the quilt because of the appeal it could have toward audiences.

“There are some pretty incredible women around North America,” Ronen said. “It would be nice if they were on it. I like things like that. I would like to be able to see it and see what these women looked like and learn more about them.”

Since she has traveled across the Southeast with the quilt, Pugrant said there is one part of her job she greatly enjoys.

“I love to watch the expressions on the faces of the audience,” Pugrant said. “It is the most motivating and exciting experience because I have had people relating to things I’m talking about and when you look at someone you can see they are really understanding what you’re saying and they’re really tuned into it.  That’s what this quilt does. It really captivates your attention and makes you really think how you can better the world of today and tomorrow as well.”