When Crafters Mall owner Karon Trybom heard that the U.S. Forest Service was in immediate need of 800 emblems sewn on 800 bags for elite firefighting scouts, she called in her own troops:

Quilters.

Their mission: sew patches on insulated zipper bags, used to store each scout’s medical supplies. One bag would go to each of the 800 scouts, members of the Arrow Corps5.

The Arrow Corps5 members are 18- to 25-year-old men from across the country. They’re coming here to lend a hand cutting fire breaks around the north state.

These scouts should converge upon Shasta County next week, which is why time was of the essence to get those bags ready.

Trybom’s primary stitchers were members of her store’s quilting group, the Blockheads. Others pitched in, too, including customers and husbands of customers.

As an aside, the Crafters Mall features all sorts of handmade items, some made by some of the women who helped sew emblems on the scouts’ bags. Canda Williams, my friend and a Food for Thought regular, has a booth in which she sells her adorable products, such as personalized baby bath towels. It’s a great store in which to buy handmade items for special gifts, like baby showers.

But I digress. Back to those emblem quilters. They plan to see the project through to completion when they fill the bags.

On a related note, I’ve heard the Arrow Corps5 group is also in need of special water bottles — again, 800 of them.

These can’t be ordinary plastic bottles. Thin plastic ones won’t work, because they’ll melt in the extreme heat near the fire sites. What’s needed are those super-heavy rigid plastic water bottles, the kind sold in sporting goods stores.

I only mention this because Trybom was under the impression the Forest Service has a limited budget for these bottles. We can’t have 800 scouts travel all the way to Shasta County to help with fires and not provide them with water bottles.

So if you know of a good source, let me know, and I’ll pass along that information.

In the meantime, thank the Crafters Mall workers by checking out their merchandise. There, when the sewing gets tough, the tough get sewing.

(Thank you, Food for Thought readers Ann Westbrook and Diane Davis for this story tip. )