Seniors make sleeping mats for homeless out of grocery bags

Oak Trace, a Downers Grove senior living community, has teamed up with a local charity to make a difference for people living on the streets of Chicago.

Residents of the community come together Wednesday afternoons to make padded sleeping mats out of plastic grocery bags as part of a project called New Life for Old Bags.

Ken Webster, a bus driver at Oak Trace, heard about the service project on the radio in April and knew residents would love to participate. Webster arranged for the project to be added to the activities calendar at Oak Trace and nearly 15 residents work on the hand-woven mats every week.

By the end of September residents had finished eight mats for the New Life for Old Bags project, which had been started by United in Faith Lutheran Church in Chicago. The mats are soft to provide padding and prevent cold from the ground from reaching the people sleeping on them.

Making the sleeping mats takes time and dedication, as each mat uses about 700 plastic bags. Oak Trace residents spent about 640 hours making the eight mats. The residents fold, loop and tie the grocery bags to create “plarn,” or plastic yarn. The plarn is then crocheted into the mats.

The project has given Oak Trace residents with a variety of talents the opportunity to make gifts benefiting others. Residents with experience crocheting make the mats while others help make the plarn.