Holiday Quilt Show and Auction helps expectant mothers and unborn babies with fetal care

Primary Children's 100th Anniversary Commemorative Quilt. Since it's rollout the Holiday Quilt Show and Auction has raised more than $2.5 million. Photo: Intermountain Healthcare.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Intermountain Foundation’s Holiday Quilt Show and Auction is coming to Salt Lake City November 12-18 to support the new fetal center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, which provides expert fetal care, including in-utero fetal surgeries, to expectant mothers.

The Quilt Show will showcase 71 elaborate handmade quilts crafted and donated by local artisans at the Little America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City.

Public viewing will be held November 12-17, followed by a gala dinner and silent and live auction on November 18. Proceeds will benefit the Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center at Primary Children’s Hospital.

“Quilting is an art that spans many generations, much like the expert medical care that Primary Children’s Hospital has provided to children and families for 100 years and counting,” said Meredyth Armitage, executive director of Intermountain Foundation in the Salt Lake Valley.

“We invite the community to view these beautiful, handcrafted quilts and join us in wrapping our arms around the new Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center,” Armitage said. “With the community’s help, we can begin to rewrite the future of untold numbers of children and help them grow into adulthood and live to their fullest potential.”

The Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center at Primary Children’s Hospital is the first highly specialized comprehensive fetal care center in Utah and the Intermountain West. It features maternal-fetal medicine specialists to support the expectant mother and family, highly trained neonatologists caring for newborns, and pediatric specialists to meet the baby’s needs before and after delivery.

The center was established with the help of an endowed gift from community members Brad and Megan Bonham and named to honor the couple’s infant son, who passed away one day after birth due to complexities that could not be addressed in-utero at the time.

The Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center is part of Intermountain Healthcare’s Primary Promise to create the nation’s model health system for children, a multi-faceted initiative and more than half-billion-dollar investment in children’s health shared by Intermountain Healthcare and community philanthropic support.

The Quilt Show was created in 1983 by a group of women who valued the rich cultural heritage of quilt-making by hand. The event is produced by a volunteer board that gathers quilters on regular quilting days to craft one-of-a-kind quilts. These individuals donated many of the show’s quilts, including a beautiful quilt designed and created by quilt board member Anna Rolapp to commemorate Primary Children’s Hospital’s 100^th birthday. Quilts also are donated by various quilt guilds throughout the state.

Since its inception, the Holiday Quilt Show and Auction has raised more than $2.5 million to forward Intermountain Research and Medical Foundation’s mission to fund medical research and education to promote health and well-being in the community. It is one of the last remaining all-hand-made quilt shows in the country.