PLANTATION, Fla. – Residents at Covenant Living of Florida in Plantation are giving plastic new purpose by turning bags into blessings.
For years now, every Friday, a group of residents get together to crochet sleeping pads for the homeless. The community comes together to collect plastic bags from residents.
“We have a good time,” said resident, Diane Bowman.
Bowman says she taught herself how to make these detailed pads from YouTube.
Click here to watch the tutorial residents used.
“As I watched them (the videos) I said ‘you know, we could do this,’” she recalled. “We started recruiting people and saving bags … and it has just kind of unfolded.”
Each pad takes nearly 700 bags to make and is roughly 6 feet long and 3 feet wide. Bowman and other residents have created an assembly line to push through.
“We flatten the bags,” she said. “We have a gentleman who cuts the bags in three-inch slips. Then we loop the loops together and we make what we call plarn - which is plastic yearn.”
The operation has expanded in recent years, encouraging more people to get involved in — not only recycling — but helping your fellow man.
“I need to bless other people in any way I reasonably can at my age,” said Don Roth, who first introduced residents to the video tutorials while attending Sunday services in the community.
Roth said his daughter taught him to crotchet several years ago and he decided put those skills to use, alongside his wife, crafting 95 beds alone.
He takes these mats to homeless shelters where he recalls stories of grateful receivers making use.
Covenant Florida works alongside the Plantation Police Department to distribute those creations.
The goal is to ultimately get the homeless proper help — to build trust, build a bridge— one plastic bag at a time.
“It is a time-consuming thing and we’re not real fast,” said Bowman. “But little bit by little bit, it gets done.”