Volunteers Make Mats and Pillows for the Homeless

A few members of the Nemaha Valley Community Hospital Volunteer Services in Seneca made their annual trip to the Topeka Rescue Mission. The volunteers make mats and pillows for the homeless as one of their community projects. The Rescue Mission distributes these to the un-sheltered homeless through their MAP program (Mobile Access Partner). These mats and pillows are made from plastic shopping bags. It takes approximately 500 bags to make one mat. Not only will these plastic mats and pillows provide a dryer and more comfortable place to sleep for the homeless, it will keep the bags out of the landfills and give them a whole new purpose. The bags are folded, cut into strips that are looped together and then rolled into a ball of plarn (plastic yarn). The plarn is then woven on a loom into a 6 ft. mat or a pillow. The scraps from the bottom seam of the bag and the handles at the top are used to stuff the pillows so the entire bag is recycled. The hospital volunteers meet every Wednesday to work on this project. They logged in 532 volunteer hours this year to make 16 mats and 6 pillows which were taken on this trip to Topeka. Anyone interested in finding out more information on this project are encouraged to contact the hospital.