(May 8, 2008 – Overland Park, KS) Mayor Carl Gerlach proclaims May 14 as Quilts of Valor Day for the city of Overland Park, Kansas in recognition of the International Machine Quilters Association who is holding their 12th Annual Machine Quilts Showcase at the Overland Park Convention Center May 14-17.

The 2008 MQS ‘Tropical Treasures’ Quilt Show is open to the public.

Wednesday May 14 from 3-7p
Thursday May 15 from 9a-6p
Friday May 16 from 9a-6p
Saturday May 17 from 9a-3p

Tickets are available for $10 at the door. The show will feature a vendor mall, classes for quilters of all skill levels, free daily demos, over 400 quilts on display, and a ceremony for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. “A Quilt of Valor is a wartime quilt made to honor our War Wounded. It’s a tangible way to say: Thank you for your service, sacrifice and valor for our country.”

The Quilts of Valor ceremony will begin in the convention center’s ballroom at 2:15 PM on Wednesday, May 14. The event will include a presentation by the color guard from Irwin Army Community Hospital of Fort Riley along with a performance by Perry-Lecompton school choir. The Quilts of Valor event is free to the public. For more information about Quilts of Valor, visit www.qovf.org.

The Machine Quilters are creating a community quilt made of quilt pieces decorated and signed by local schools, companies, and city officials. The finished quilts will be donated to the Quilts of Valor. Quilt pieces will be available for the public to sign at the QOV booth during the entire Quilt Show. Material for the community quilt was donated by Prairie Point, a quilt shop located at 7341 Quivera Road. For more information about IMQA, visit www.imqa.org.

The International Machine Quilters Association (IMQA) is an organization of longarm and shortarm machine quilters worldwide. The goal of the IMQA is to further the professional development of machine quilters and the profession of machine quilting as well as the development of machine quilters in the private sector. Machine quilting is defined as quilting done using a hand-guided or computer-guided machine operated by the use of a track system or via a suspended frame (not a hand-held frame). IMQA provides a network of support and information to members, information to the general public and also provides assistance and guidance to other organizations concerning the machine quilting industry.

The OPCC sits on a 26-acre site in the heart of Overland Park, the largest suburban city in the Kansas City metropolitan area and the second largest city in Kansas. The mid-sized convention center features a 60,000 square-foot exhibition hall that connects to the 25,000 sq. ft. Edwin C. Eilert Ballroom. Additionally, the OPCC provides an additional 15,000 sq. ft. of event space and 40,000 sq. ft. of pre-function space that proudly houses a collection of selected works of art created by renowned Midwestern artists.

Overland Park offers visitors a wide variety of lodging accommodations and boasts a total inventory of more than 5,000 guest rooms. Of these, 1,000 are within walking distance of the OPCC, including the 412-room Sheraton Hotel. There are also 3,000 hotel rooms within five minutes of the facility.

Global Spectrum (global-spectrum.com) is the fastest growing firm in the public assembly facility management field with more than 70 facilities throughout the United States and Canada. The Philadelphia-based company is part of one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies, Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, a regional sports programming network, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, and Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company and 3601 Creative Group, a full-service in-house advertising agency. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor annually produces 10 nationally televised figure skating spectaculars on NBC.

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Thursday, May 08, 2008