Emily Nitz and Parker Vanhooser are Girl Scouts that partnered with KindCraft in October for their Silver Award. Here is a follow up to our last blog post. (Click here if you missed reading the details about Making Plarn with KindCraft.)
Emily and Parker wrote the following write up about their project:
Why?
Sea turtles eat plastic bags (mistaking them for jellyfish) that blow into the ocean from landfills. It takes 400 years for one plastic bag to decompose! So, we found an alternate solution to throwing away plastic bags, helping humans in need and helping sea turtles.
What?
We collected single use plastic bags (think Wal-mart grocery sacks). We hosted a workshop with KindCraft (www.kindcraft.org) for families with children of all ages to make plarn (plastic yarn). Check out the event Making Plarn with KindCraft here.
We then delivered the plarn to FaithWorks who will crochet the plarn into mats for the homeless in our community. We delivered the plastic scraps and left over plastic bags to Hen House for recycling to keep them from the landfill. Finally, we provided follow up information for anyone interested to continue recycling and/or making plarn.
Continued opportunities:
* Make plarn at home and deliver to Church of the Resurrection donation drop off (Resurrection Leawood, Bldg. B 13720 Roe Ave Leawood, KS 66224)
* First Saturday of each month with FaithWork
"Gather in the Resurrection Commons (lobby) of Building B at 8:45am to sign in and enjoy a light snack. After a short devotion at 9am, you will stay in the Commons and train to become of a member of our mighty crochet team! You will be finished by 11:30am. All instructions and materials are provided; no experience necessary. A crochet hook is available for $5, or you can purchase your own after your training.
Using "plarn" - plastic yarn - you will be taught to crochet plastic water-resistant mats for those suffering homelessness. These mats are distributed on Christmas Day by the clients of Healing House, a successful addiction recovery residential program here in Kansas City.
Task includes crocheting plarn or learning to crochet plarn. If you decide to, you can commit to taking your project home and working on it between FaithWork sessions, all materials provided. Children aged 12+ accompanied by an adult are welcome (the adult can learn to crochet too, or just work on making plarn instead)."
Learn more about Healing House at http://healinghousekc.org/.
* Recycle plastic bags at most local grocery stores instead of throwing them in the garbage
Remember, this is to save the sea turtles!
Emily & Parker