ORANGE — Two more North Quabbin area veterans became Quilts of Valor recipients following a ceremony at the Community Church of North Orange and Tully last week.

Kenneth Chaisson and Paul Lyman were named the 2025 honorees by the North Orange Grange. Chaisson was presented with his quilt, though Lyman was unable to attend the Tuesday ceremony.

“I didn’t do anything spectacular,” Chaisson said in an interview after the ceremony. “It’s just, so many of my family members would deserve this, and so I always keep them in mind because this is theirs as well.”

The honor was made possible by the Quilts of Valor Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to literally and metaphorically comfort veterans with the healing love of a homemade quilt as an expression of gratitude for their sacrifices. The quilts were crafted by Nancy Blackmer, the Orange town clerk and North Orange Grange secretary. The North Orange Grange had previously presented quilts to 13 veterans in the Orange-Athol-New Salem area, including Leon Nicoliello, Dan Kimball, George C.F. Willard, James Cornwell, Joe Young and Edward Day.

The two newest recipients’ names were kept a secret until the ceremony. Chaisson said his wife duped him into going to the ceremony by telling him it was an Orange Merchants Group meeting.

“And then when I saw my friend Jon [Bramhall] … he owns his own construction business, so I was like, ‘Oh, he must have joined,’” he said. “So I was totally oblivious.”

During his remarks, Chaisson credited Bramhall — a fellow 1978 graduate of Ralph C. Mahar Regional School — as his motivation for joining the military. He explained his friend enlisted and came home on leave with stories so inspiring he decided to follow. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1979 to 1991. He sailed through the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans as well as the Mediterranean, Red and South China seas, the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal, the equator and the International Date Line.

Chaisson raised money to help military personnel and Afghan interpreters get out of Afghanistan, and generated funds for the Navy SEAL Museum. He also has supported Joggin’ for Frogmen, which helps families of fallen Navy personnel.

Lyman enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1996, working his way up to sergeant first class. He attended Warrant Officer Candidate School in 2012 and was pinned as a Warrant Officer 1. He now serves in the Ordnance Branch.

He transferred to the Connecticut Army National Guard in 2013 and, three years later, to the Massachusetts Army National Guard, where he currently serves.

Prior to the Quilts of Valor ceremony, Grange members Niles Larson and Nancy J. Blackmer (the quilting Blackmer’s mother-in-law) received membership awards. Also, the Grange received a plaque for reaching its 150th anniversary.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.