Memorial Quilt

What to do with Ian's shirts, for a boy who rarely left the house he sure had a lot of them. We decided to have a memorial quilt made with some of them. Brian, Becca and I went through them looking for the ones to make the perfect quilt.

Starting at the top right corner as square 1 and working across....

Square 1 was his Camp Simcha Special shirt from 2013, his first year there. Who would have thought just 6 months after coming home from his longest hospital stay and getting trached, he would have gone to sleep away camp 5 hours away from home. Camp Simcha Special became one of his favorite places where he met some of the most incredible guys, including Danny Trestman and Dovid Troub.

Square 2 was his Orioles baseball shirt. He went to a few games and would usually make it to the 7th inning stretch.

Square 3 was his Camp Milldale shirt. He went there for 4 years in their inclusion program and had 3 wonderful counselors. They helped to make sure he did other things with his bunk mates. This was the 1st place we heard of Chai Lifeline as Camp Milldale did a swim-a-thon to raise money for them.

Square 4 was his shirt from playing baseball. A League of Dreams provides all individuals, regardless of physical or mental capacity, through opportunity to experience the joy, challenges and personal growth from playing the great games of baseball and softball.

Square 5 was a tie dye shirt he made with Adina Levitan through Chai Lifeline.  He made a matching one for his big brother, Jared Hurwitz.

Square 6 was on of his motorcycle shirts. Ian loved motorcycles and a good ride. In fact, he was an honorary member of 2 clubs, MVC and the Lonsmen. He went on 2 motorcycle rides, one with each group.

Square 7 was the shirt he wore for his tallis ceremony.  On June 8, 2014, Becca and Ian had a ceremony where they got their talises. Usually, they are received at ones Bar/Bat Mitzvah, however, we decided the twins to get them early during a special ceremony.

Square 8 was one of his Spider-Man shirts. It says "I'm not Saying I'm Spider-Man, I'm just saying you haven't seen us together."

Square 9 was his Camp Simcha Special helicopter shirt. One of the highlights for Ian at camp was the helicopter ride they went on every year. He would always come home from camp and tell us all about this ride.

Square 10 was his Give Kids the World shirt from his Make A Wish trip in November 2010. Give Kids the World is the village for wish families at Walt Disney's World in Orlando, Florida. Everything in the village is accessible. We had a blast there as well as at all the parks. Especially Universal, where Ian's wish to meet Spider-Man came true.

Square 11 was a shirt from the 4-H Therapeutic riding program Ian participated in for over 3 years. He rode Smokey for his years riding. He especially liked Halloween at the barn when the horses all got dressed up as well as earning all his riding ribbons.

Square 12 was his Bike 4 Chai shirt through Chai Lifeline.  Every year bikers would ride bikes for 2 days to raise money for Chai Lifeline where the finish line was the greatest place on earth, Camp Simcha Special! Each year one of the riders would look for Ian and give him the medal he got for making the ride. Ian came home from camp proud of his medal and eager to share it with us.

Square 13 was a shirt from his cousin, Josh's Bar Mitzvah.  His name was air brushed on.

Square 14 was his Chatsworth 2015 shirt. This has all the names of the 5th grades who moved up to the 6th grade...Middle school. If you look closely, you can see his name between the horses hind legs.

Square 15 was his soccer shirt. The signatures on the shirt are from two Baltimore Blast players when his adaptive soccer league went to a game one night.  His league even got to walk on the field in a parade before the game started.

Square 16 was his Zaching Against Cancer shirt. Zach was another Gilchrist Kid who lost his battle to cancer. The way the person is holding their arms in the shirt became Zach's moto.

Square 17 was Ian class B cub scout shirt. He started scouts when he was a tiger (1st grade). He continued for another 3 years. He made a lasting impression on pack 143 as well as they made a lasting impression on him.

Square 18 was a one of the few shirts we had as a "twin" shirt. A Nice Jewish Boy....that is exactly what Ian was.  Becca's matching shirt was pink and said Nice Jewish Girl.

Square 19 was his Never Give up shirt from the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation.  Each one of us had one and we spent a day getting wonderful family photos while wearing our shirts.

Square 20 was his Spider-Man shirt which came from Isreal.  The Hebrew in the bottom says Spider-Man.  I think it came from Josh on one of his trips to Israel.

Square 21 was his Ravens Hebrew shirt. Again the shirt came from Isreal, but I can't remember who it came from.

Square 22 was a Spider-Man shirt. He had many Spider-Man shirts but this is the one we chose to put in the quilt.

Square 23 was his Spider-Ian shirt. This was air brushed while at a friends bat mitzvah. 

Square 24 was one of his Casey Cares shirt. Casey Cares is an organization which provides ongoing and uplifting programming to critically ill children and their families. Ian and Becca did many different things through Casey Cares, such as going to the circus and Ian throwing out the 1st pitch at an Orioles game.

We aren't sure if the quilt will actually get used for fear of it getting ruined. But we do know it will be one more thing we hold on to and cherish for many years to come. Hopefully one day we will pass it on to Becca for her to keep and cherish.