Students transform plastic bags into rugs for homeless

During lunch mods Dec. 10, Social Studies IMC secretary Kathy Knust and a group of women from St. John’s church brought thousands of plastic grocery sacks and their talent to teach students how to make rugs out of sacks. The women from St. John’s have been making the rugs for homeless shelters and Omaha’s Night Watch program for nearly three years.

Debbie Carlson, one of the women in the group, has been involved with the rug-making for three months and has grown to love everything about the project. Between making the rugs, recycling plastic bags and helping the homeless in Omaha, she has found her involvement to be very rewarding.

“It’s a good deed for the community because some homeless people, no matter how cold it is, won’t come into the shelter,” Carlson said. “At least this gives them something to help keep them warm.”

To begin making a rug, anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 plastic grocery sacks are looped together to create “plarn,” also called plastic-yarn. Once all of the sacks are looped together, the plarn is then crocheted into a blanket-sized rug that can take up to months to finish. The rugs are then donated and can be used to sleep on when the homeless shelter runs out of beds and mattresses for people to use.

Knust chose to bring the idea to Westside after seeing how many students need service-learning hours and are unable to get hours after school or on the weekend. This project provides an opportunity for students to come in during open mods and before or after school to not only earn service hours, but also help the community.

“I hope this will give students a giving attitude,” Knust said. “I want to see what they can do and I hope they take their creativity to the next level.”