Golden Flash Quilt
From making her mark on campus during Destination Kent State to joining the recreational skate team, Marissa Belock, a junior biology major, has created many memories during her college career so far.
Thanks to her mother, Lori (Dmitroff) Belock, BSEd ’86, Dublin, Ohio, those memories are now wrapped up in a beautiful quilt of blue and gold T-shirts.
“I first saw a post on social media about a T-shirt quilt, and I thought, I can do that!” Belock says. “This is my sixth T-shirt quilt, and I get better every time.”
Belock included one of her daughter’s favorite Kent State T-shirts from freshmen orientation because, she says, “It has the most meaning, as it represented an official flying out of the nest.”
Not only are her daughter’s favorite T-shirts sewn into the quilt, but Belock also added some of the T-shirts she’s received at Kent State Alumni events.
“My family and I have volunteered during Alumni Day of Service with the Central Ohio Alumni Chapter for the last three years (Homeless Families Foundations and the Central Ohio Food Bank),” she says. “Even though my husband is a Buckeye, we make it a family affair.”
Belock began sewing when she was only 9 years old, as a member of 4-H in Ashtabula, Ohio. “I credit my Ashtabula upbringing and KSU education to my adventures around the country and volunteering. I love Ashtabula and its history as much as I love Kent’s history. Quilting is my way of preserving history.”
Although she wishes she would have kept her T-shirts from her Kent State days, she still remembers many experiences she had as a student.
“My favorite memories include the Robin Hood, Ray’s, Halloween, Korb Hall and Glen Morris apartments (now Eagle’s Landing). Fun times! They were an important part of growing up and being on my own.”
She also remembers the beautiful Kent Campus. “I had a favorite walk on campus to White Hall. I had this Zen-like, calming feeling every time I walked along the curvy path lined with flowers and huge trees that must have been there for 100 years—and black squirrels running all over.”
Belock proudly wears her Kent State gear—some of which she says is too precious to cut up for a quilt—whenever she visits one of the national parks with her family. “It’s fun to reminisce with other Flashes we meet at our national treasures.”
—Ashley Whaley, BS ’06, MEd ’12