Ellen Huntley has made between 40 and 50 quilts in the past 18 months for complete strangers.

A teacher and Kailua resident, Huntley, 56, is one of three volunteer quilters for Operation Kid Comfort, a program at the Pearl Harbor YMCA that has been getting an overwhelming number of requests in recent months. The program creates quilts with family photos in them for military children whose parents are deployed. Each quilt has about nine photos on photo fabric sewn into the material.

"It's something the child can kind of snuggle up with at night and just kind of be comforted that dad or mom is near," Huntley said.

Recently, the program has been getting about 30 requests a day from military families ,all in Hawai'i, coordinator Brittany Traylor said. She estimated they've made about 500 quilts since they started in September.

Wheeler Air Force Base resident Jason Laquatan, 27, was at the YMCA yesterday with his wife Crystal, 25, to receive a quilt for his 19-month-old daughter Nyima before he left on his third tour of Iraq that afternoon.

"This is awesome," he said. "It's a long-term thing. She'll keep this forever."

Crystal Laquatan said her Family Readiness Group, a support and information group for military families, contacted her about the program.

The three quilters at Operation Kid Comfort pay for the fabric out of their own pockets, but the huge number of requests has led Traylor and the volunteers to start seeking donations of money and fabric, as well as additional volunteers.

The group is hosting a workshop July 21 for people interested in volunteering. They'll be making quilts, teaching sewing, and will also be able to use volunteers who can print photos and cut fabric.

For more information on the workshop, contact Traylor at the Pearl Harbor YMCA at 473-0200 or asymcakidcomfort@gmail.

Volunteer and 'Ewa Beach resident Susan Hanshalter, 57, said she's received many thank-you notes from families since she started. One particular letter from a service member still in Iraq really touched her.

"It just made me cry," she said. "I think it's a well-worth project, and it's something we like to do anyway."