Residents of the Village at Orchard Ridge retirement community have taken the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” literally, as they were able to collect 31,500 plastic bags and transform them into 35 waterproof mats.
The mats have been given to the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS) to give to the homeless as a waterproof surface to sleep on.
WATTS partners with local faith-based organizations to provide overnight shelter to people who need a warm place to sleep when the weather turns cold. For 20 weeks from November until the spring, different religious groups host WATTS, offering food and sleeping accommodations for up to 35 people. Today marks the end of WATTS’ 10th season.
Janie Dickens-Bowman, volunteer coordinator at Orchard Ridge off Northwestern Pike (U.S. 50), said the idea to create the waterproof mats came came from resident Nancy Mozeleski, who said that the Village at Orchard Ridge has plenty of resources and people to help others. Dickens-Bowman said that nationwide there are various organizations and volunteers who use crocheting, knitting and weaving skills to create waterproof plastic mats or other items to send to less developed countries where many people sleep on the ground.
After hearing Mozeleski’s pitch, Dickens-Bowman browsed the internet to look at how the concept has been used elsewhere and felt it would work well at the Village at Orchard Ridge.
“We’ve got lots of crafty people and people with time and willingness to do something,” she said.
A meeting was held in August to see if any residents were interested, and roughly 15 showed up. The residents assessed what Winchester’s local needs were and determined that they should try to help the homeless. The residents formed a group called the Plarners at Orchard Ridge. The word plarn comes from the combination of plastic and yarn.
The group has close to 40 members. The Plarners started getting the word out about the project in September and informed the roughly 450 residents of the retirement community that they would need to collect plastic bags for the project. Dickens-Bowman said family members of Village at Orchard Ridge residents also donated plastic bags for the project.
Over the course of several months, the Plarners set aside time to sort, fold, cut and loop the bags, turning them into balls of plastic yarn. The Plarners then crocheted the mats from the plastic yarn using gigantic crochet needles.
Dickens-Bowman said it takes about 25 to 30 hours from start to finish to sort, cut, loop and crochet the mats. Each 3-by-6-foot sleeping mat requires about 900 plastic grocery bags.
Dickens-Bowman said many of the Plarners did not know each other before the project but now they have formed new friendships. She said they were able to produce something useful by recycling “annoying” plastic bags.
“This was resident-driven,” Dickens-Bowman said. “They came up with the idea. They sort of formed themselves and divvied out the tasks and the assignments and they have all taken it very seriously. They are very passionate about it.”
WATTS Executive Director Marion Schottelkorb called the donation a “beautiful, caring gesture.”
“It’s just totally amazing,” she said. “The mats are just beautiful. It’s such an awesome idea and such a giving and caring idea.”
Schottelkorb said that WATTS was at capacity the majority of this season. She said WATTS is seeking a permanent location and there are a couple of locations they are evaluating.
Dickens-Bowman said the Plarners will continue to collect bags and create mats. In addition to the 35 mats given to WATTS, the Plarners have created roughly 30 other mats, some of which have been given to the Winchester Rescue Mission.
