St. Mark, Va Beach, ministry provides friendship, support
Friends who crochet together and pray together, stay together.
Five years ago, a group of women from St. Mark, Virginia Beach, set out to learn how to make sleeping mats out of “plarn” — yarn made from plastic bags. Besides a calling to a new ministry, they also found friendship and laughter.
Today, the group meets every Thursday morning to help the St. Mark Justice and Peace Committee in its efforts support People in Need, a center for the homeless located at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
“I saw an event on Facebook, back in June of 2017,” Chris McGrath, founding member of the group, said, “for those wanting to learn how to make mats out of plastic bags. I went to that meeting, and I thought: maybe this is something that our church might be interested in doing.”
She spoke to St. Mark Justice and Peace Coordinator Joyce Gridley, who invited her to present her idea to the committee and to interested parishioners.
“When we started, it was supposed to be just a one-time thing, so that people could learn how to make the mats at home,” McGrath said. “But then the group really bonded together, so we just kept meeting, every week.”
As the group celebrates its 5th anniversary, it is going strong.
“It turned into a real group of friends, a real support system,” volunteer Cheryl Hummer said.
Father Anthony Mpungu, pastor of St. Mark, said that not only do the women work to help the PiN ministry, but the parish as well, infusing quiet weekday mornings with a spirt of friendship and building a stronger sense of community.
“We need to connect in order to build,” he said, “because building is not one man’s chore. We all have a part to play.”
Helping hands
The group begins each meeting with prayer, asking God’s help for those who are afraid and hopeless, without friends or family to take them in, or even the simple comfort and security of being able to come home after a long day.
Then, the crafters settle at long tables in the parish hall to begin work on the mats — mats that are waterproof and bugproof, making for soft but durable barriers against the damp ground of Hampton Roads. The group also makes tote bags, giving those who are homeless a lightweight means to carry their belongings.
“Every three months or so, we gather all of the things that we’ve done,” McGrath said. “Father blesses them, and he blesses our hands, and we deliver the things to the PiN ministry.”
The group has sold some of the mats at church craft fairs for use as picnic mats, Hummer said.
“Men also like to use them in their garages, when they are working on their cars,” she said.
The crafters have raised more than $1,200 selling their mats and tote bags, all of which they have donated to the PiN ministry.
“We don’t know where the work of our hands will go, who the mats will go to,” Father Mpungu said. “We don’t always see the impact of our work, but we are all connected in ways that we do not always see.”
Waste not, want not
There’s a donation box at the church, where parishioners can drop off plastic for the group. Thus far, the Plarn Ministry has made 352 mats and 88 tote bags from the unwanted bags.
The ministry also makes use of the scraps left from their projects, as well as other types of plastic, by participating in a program sponsored by Trex, an outdoor furniture company. Through the program, a nonprofit group can earn a park bench for every 500 pounds of plastic it recycles.
The plarn group has kept 1,005 pounds of plastic waste out of area landfills, enough to earn to two park benches.
“We have one here at St. Mark’s, and the other, the group has donated to the PiN office, to make the center more welcoming,” Hummer said.
The crafters have found that there’s a lot one can do with trash, volunteer Mickey Fisher said.
“Or, that is, garbage,” she corrected, laughing.
Fisher said she’s volunteered all of her life, beginning as a child in Havana, where her father was stationed with the military. There, she collected milk cartons to turn into Easter baskets to fill with candy for a nearby orphanage.
“If you look, and get a little creative, you’ll find that you don’t need a lot of money to make something useful,” she said.
The art of giving
The volunteers try to make each mat unique. First, they sort the bags by color and by thickness. Commissary bags are heavier than those from local chains, Hummer explained, so those are set aside to be used for handles, to make them stronger.
Then, the crafters flatten the bags, smoothing out all the wrinkles, before folding them in half and then in half again, making them into long strips. The handles are cut off and discarded. Each strip is cut with scissors or a rotary cutter every two inches, creating a small pile of two inch-wide loops.
The crafters tie the loops together using a lark’s head knot, creating long threads of “plarn” that can be crocheted, just like yarn.
It’s a painstaking process; it takes about 500 to 700 bags to make one mat. As the bags are crocheted, store logos become splotches of dappled color. Some crafters use blue and brown bags to make striped mats, or the odd yellow or purple bag to fashion decorative rosettes for the tote bags.
Hummer displayed a finished mat, created by volunteer Lydia Nobriga, who chooses an assortment of bags, giving her mats a marbled effect.
Trisha Doherty, who joined the group when she moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania five years ago, said she once tried a technique of braiding the plarn, rather than crocheting it.
“I thought it would be easier, but let me tell you,” she said, laughing. “It wasn’t.”
As the group works, they share stories and catch up with one another, discussing books, exercise routines, grandchildren and the day’s news.
“It’s a chance to meet with friends and laugh and have fun while doing something that helps others,” volunteer Diane Girardo said.
For Gigi Schuler, the group is a perfect way for her to give back to the church while her grandchildren are at school.
“I don’t crochet, but I can straighten and cut up the bags,” she said. “I enjoy the company and the friendship we’ve created, not only helping the church but those who are in need.”