High 5: Payson Woman Creates Quilts Of Valor For City’s Veterans

PAYSON, Utah – Service in the Royce family has several meanings.

There’s service to country, and then there’s service to those who served our country.

“Dad was a veteran with the Air Force and was always patriotic,” said Melanie Baird of her father, Charles.

For more than a decade, Charles and Roberta Boyce have created beautiful quilts of valor for Payson’s veterans.

“It will have their rank, who they served for,” Melanie said. “It’s a service, and then a ‘Thank you for your service.'”

“She always puts her and dad’s name on it,” she added.

Melanie said even after her father passed away two years ago, her mother continued on making sure each veteran in the community receives the gift. Each quilt and its detail is a labor of love, taking days and sometimes weeks to make.

“They are always so humble with it that you can’t present one without crying. You can’t,” she said. “It just pulls you into them, and they’re so grateful to have the acknowledgement.”

Melanie said her mom Roberta will admit to making about 60 quilts in total, but Melanie has counted many more than that.

“She’s probably done 90 – 100, absolutely,” she said.

Melanie said her mom is “the most amazing person, and the most giving, because she does this out of her own pocket.”

She’s grateful for her mother’s example of service, and she knows her father is, too.

“I would like to think that every time one is presented, Dad is standing there next to her just happy that it’s still going on,” Melanie said.

America First Credit Union heard that Roberta has continued the tradition using money from her own pocket to create these quilts, so they are sending her a $500 Visa gift card to help her continue making the Quilts of Valor.