A Richland woman will never forget the day she finished the quilt she spent months designing, sewing and making.

It was the morning her 92-year-old mother died.

Leslie Kelly started planning the king-size quilt nearly a year before as a donation to Rebuilding Mid-Columbia.

The nonprofit built a wheelchair ramp for Kelly’s mother, Isa “Dee” Lynch, that significantly improved the quality of her life.

Rebuilding Mid-Columbia offers free housing repairs to low-income homeowners, with an emphasis on helping single parents, the elderly and disabled, and veterans.

When the ramp was “finished that first day, we were in tears,” Kelly said.

“What they did made the last year of her life so much better than it would have been,” she said.

Kelly applied to receive assistance from Rebuilding Mid-Columbia for her mother on Easter Sunday last year.

She didn’t have to wait long before receiving a call from the group to assess what was needed at Lynch’s Richland home. They visited her house the next day.

“God just lined everything up for us. We never expected results that fast,” Kelly said.

Having the ramp was critical to get Lynch, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, safely in and out of her home.

“She had gotten to the point where she couldn’t get out of the house. She fell twice on the two steps at the front door,” Kelly said. “I didn’t even like her walking with a walker because she’d be walking with it and suddenly she’d fall over backward. Her balance was greatly compromised.”

When volunteers came to build the ramp, they asked how else they could help out around the house.

Kelly asked if they’d play cards with her mother.

“They sat around that table all afternoon and they played,” she said with a smile. “I always told Mom that when death came around, she’d say, “One more hand.’ ”

The family was grateful for the work and sought to find a way to say thank you.

“I wanted to do something for Rebuilding Mid-Columbia simply because it was such a life changing thing for us. I couldn’t afford to donate toward them,” Kelly said.

That’s where the quilt comes in.

Kelly spotted a quilt design featuring a pattern with small houses in a magazine. She instantly knew it would be perfect for Rebuilding Mid-Columbia.

The agency is selling raffle tickets for $25 apiece for the quilt as part of its third annual fundraiser, set for Friday, April 20.

“It’s an organization that people don’t know enough about,” Kelly said.

Kelly said she sought her mother’s advice on the quilting project because she had a keen eye for colors and patterns.

She said it was her mother’s idea to switch the planned floral border for a green one.

The quilt proved challenging as Kelly made a mistake and had to redesign it. She also had to search for extra matching fabric for the green border. Luckily, a quilting friend came to the rescue, she said.

The 12 applique flowers took six to eight hours apiece and were the hardest part of the project.

Her mother loved the quilt, Kelly said.

Kelly put the last stitch into its binding before her mother died on Feb. 16.

“She was able to see it before she died — she knew it was finished,” Kelly said.

Rebuilding Mid-Columbia fundraiser dinner, auction

Raffle tickets for the quilt are $25 apiece. Rebuilding Mid-Columbia aims to raise $700 from ticket sales before pulling a winning ticket for the blanket.

The annual fundraiser is at 6 p.m. Friday, April 20 at the M Hotel and Conference Center, 1515 George Washington Way, Richland.

Cost to attend is $35 before April 15 and includes dinner, complimentary wine tasting by Bookwalter Winery and hard cider by D’s Wicked Cider. Tickets at the door are $50.

This year’s event theme is “Hope changes everything.”

“We chose it because every family we have served, every single one of them, their hope for their future and their community has been restored. We felt it was very fitting,” said Crystal Carter, executive director of the nonprofit.

The fledgling organization, which has been operating for 18 months, has served 56 families to date on a shoestring $140,000 annual budget.

Carter said she hopes to raise $40,000 at the April fundraiser.

Rebuilding Mid-Columbia tackles plumbing, flooring and roof repairs and installs wheelchair ramps. Each home repair project costs about $2,500.

This year’s Leadership Tri-Cities class teamed up with Rebuilding Mid-Columbia for its community service project. The leadership program aims to assemble, develop and educate a diverse group of skilled leaders to be catalysts for positive change.

Bob Nelson, president of Leadership Tri-Cities Class 23, said his class considered several nonprofits for its community service project and chose Rebuilding Mid-Columbia for a variety of reasons.

“We were looking for a new organization to help lift up and take to the next level. With Rebuilding Mid-Columbia, we felt we’d have the greatest impact with the skill set we have and determined we could have the greatest community impact by partnering with them. We were impressed by their organization and appreciated that they have taken the difficult path to not affiliate with a national organization to ensure all proceeds stay within our community,” Nelson said.

The leadership class collected more than $13,000 in donations for Rebuilding Mid-Columbia’s silent auction.

Auction item highlights include a seven-day trip for two to Africa; a fishing trip for four; golf passes; skin care packages; wine, beer and restaurant gift certificates; heating; electrical and plumbing services; year-long cleaning services, among many others.

Tickets for the event and quilt raffle may be purchased online at rebuildingmc.org. Click on “upcoming events” at the top of the page.

“It should be a lot of fun and by coming out and supporting this event, you are drastically impacting the lives of your neighbors,” Carter said.