GEORGETOWN, Del. - After partnering with Volunteer Delaware 50+, the Georgetown Public Library is set to host the first of four Bags2Mats workshops.
The workshop is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Attendees will learn how to crochet plastic yarn and weave it into durable sleeping mats. Community members are invited to participate with no prior experience.
Flatten a plastic bag. Fold it a few times. Cut it, then you're left with loops. Loop them together and you have the start of a mat created out of plastic bags or plarn (plastic yarn) for the homeless.
Plarn at the Bags2Mats workshop at the Georgetown Public Library.
Linda Mason, a volunteer with Volunteer Delaware 50+, will then start to crochet them into a mat for someone to sleep on. Mason says the feedback she's received from the homeless is why she keeps going. Specifically, the feedback of one man she met when she was dropping off the DIY sleeping bags to The Shepherd's Office in Georgetown.
"One day I was there delivering them to Jim and a young man came out to me with a vest. He was now a volunteer at The Shepherd's Office. He says 'I just want to tell you those mats are so important to us, please don't stop making them,'" Mason recalled.
The man she spoke with was once homeless and used the mats that the organization created. She says he told her "they keep us from being on the ground, there's a little bit of cushion and they're easy to transport."
When asked to recall how that moment made her feel, Mason became teary eyed, just as she says she did that day.
"I started tearing up. I said to him 'every time I think of stopping, I'm going to think of you,'" Mason said.
It takes almost 600 single use plastic bags to make one mat. Mason says they are always looking for volunteers.
There were quite a few volunteers on Thursday, including Linda Spall who says she's just happy to help.
"I have a soft spot and I think it's important. My mother used to say 'to whom much is given, much is expected' and every little bit helps. So here I am," shared Spall.
The final product is this sleeping bag for the homeless.
Linda Mason showing a sleeping bag created from plastic bags at the first workshop at the Georgetown Public Library.