Duvall Bag Ladies

I’m super excited to share this post with you today. We have bag ladies in Duvall.

Now you may be saying, “Kim homelessness is nothing to get excited about. Let’s have some compassion.” And I’d totally agree with you, because it’s not those kind of bag ladies. Sandy, a local woman and recent retiree, saw stories of women recycling plastic bags into sleeping mats for the homeless. I saw those stories too and said wow, isn’t that nice. But the difference between Sandy and me is that she decided to mobilize local efforts and take on this problem as well. She is a woman of action.

She talked to the local grocery stores to gather bags from their recycle bins. She contacted the local yarn shop—Quintessential Knits—and has enlisted willing volunteers to crochet mats. At the store, she has a basket of prepared bag yarn ready to be crocheted up. And she has friends who work with the homeless at local camps and in the soup kitchens who are able to distribute the finished sleeping mats.

So last Tuesday, I came home from knit group with a bag of plastic yarn and a mission. The first set of mats will be handed out this week.

I went through my drawer of bags and whipped up some yarn of my own. The mats are light-weight and compact. And the store bags add color and interest.

While I’m opposed to plastic bags in general; let’s face it; they’re everywhere. It takes about 600 bags to make one mat. Maybe these mats will keep at least a few from blowing around parking lots and polluting our oceans. And perhaps they’ll give homeless people a bit of comfort knowing someone cared enough to make one just for them.

You can find out more information about the Duvall Bag Ladies by contacting Sandy at DuvallBagLadies @gmail.com

When Sweet Miss was in high school, she was part of the Random Acts of Kindness club, and they had t-shirts saying “Be the Difference You Want to See in the World.” That’s a wonderful saying to take to heart.

How are you making a difference in the world?

By the way, Baby Girl did make it back to school yesterday. The snow and ice that hit Oregon over the weekend left many travellers stranded. When Portland and Eugene airports closed, one of BG’s friends wound up at SeaTac, so she even had company on the road. Hoping for safe travels for all the kids going back to school.