A former leader of the military trauma hospital located in Kandahar, Afghanistan, will be on Vashon next week to recognize American Hero Quilts and those who have supported it.

Captain David C. Collins served as the second in command at the hospital at Kandahar Airfield from August 2013 to May 2014 and is now serving at the Naval Hospital in Bremerton.

He will come to Vashon to meet with Sue Nebeker, who has run American Hero Quilts from the basement of her Maury Island home since 2004 and has distributed more than 18,000 quilts to service men and women wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will also attend an informal, public gathering at Island Quilter.

Collins said he is coming simply to say thank you.

“I can tell you that every one of those guys that came to our hospital truly appreciated receiving their quilt,” he said last week.

Collins, who has served in the Navy since 1983, said he was attending a celebration at the naval hospital a few months ago and had invited Nebeker to distribute quilts to some of those being honored. From there he received an invitation to come to Vashon, which he accepted, because he was present when those who were wounded received their quilts and how much they meant.

“The soldiers all knew that if you got injured, you got a quilt,” he said. “The first thing they asked if they were injured and once they were stabilized was ‘When do I get my quilt?’”

For her part, Nebeker said she is excited that Collins is coming to Vashon and noted she has invited several people to meet him.

“It takes a village to make a quilt,” she said. “They pour their love and heart into it, and we send it off out into the world. We do not know most of the time who got it and what their story is. … To have someone come and talk about what it meant to give those people a metaphorical hug and what it meant to them means so much to us.”

Collins will be at Island Quilter at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 4. The public is welcome.