Crafty CC Young Senior
Living volunteers find an environmentally friendly way to pitch in.
By Leslie Barker 8:00 AM on Feb 26, 2020
Life, as it reminds
us time and again, is a matter of perspective.
We can look at a
glass as half full, or sigh at it as half empty. We can savor each bite of a
favorite dessert or berate ourselves for eating it. We can see plastic bags as
an ecological nightmare or envision them crocheted together and softening the
sidewalk for a homeless person or a hard floor for a refugee.
Granted, most of us
do look at plastic bags as ecological nightmares. How can we not, when we in
the United States use an estimated 100 billion of them every year, and social
media is filled with posts on how they’re clogging our oceans and choking our
fauna?
But a couple dozen
crafters at CC Young Senior Living in Northeast Dallas see ways around the
environmental scourge factor. Every Monday, these self-named Happy Hookers
gather to work some alchemistic magic. The results: Thick-stitched, colorful
crocheted masterpieces, each about the size of a sleeping bag, that look more
like they’re made of yarn than plastic that once carried eggs or socks or
bottles of soda.
“This is such a good
way to keep 600 bags out of the landfill,” says Marilyn Hamilton, 78.
That number, along
with 50 hours from start to finish, is what goes into making each mat, says
Brianna Brown, whose mother, Veta Boswell, lives at CC Young. She was inspired
to start the group after reading about a similar one in Tennessee.
Made
with love
So far, Brown says,
the group has given out 160 mats. Recipients have included Catholic Charities
of Dallas, the Salvation Army and The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center. After
hosting a mat-making workshop with homeless women at Austin Street Center, the Happy
Hookers invited their fellow crafters to lunch at CC Young. At Dallas Hope
Charities, in partnership with Cathedral of Hope, a priest blessed the mats
before the Happy Hookers handed them to clients.
“The impact that is
made through gestures, such as these water-repellent mats, which some clients
use as blankets, is unimaginable,” says Evie Scrivner, executive director of
Dallas Hope Charities.
A week after the
Happy Hookers toured Oak Lawn United Methodist Church and left a batch of their
handiwork, frigid temperatures hit. When clients came to the church’s warming
station, mats handmade with plastic bags and love awaited them.
When Brown and her
friend Marti Brooks began planning the bags-to-mats group, they decided CC
Young would be a good place to hold it. Brown’s mother, now 90, was living
there, plus the facility offers a variety of classes for residents and
neighbors, who are always eager to share their time.
Five people — Brown,
Brooks, Boswell and two others — showed up at the first Happy Hookers meeting.
Almost three years later, close to 25 regulars do, sitting in chairs arranged
around four long tables placed to form a square in the large, airy room.
Participants tend to migrate to the same spot, greeting each other with
comfortable warmth.
By
hand, with heart
On the first Monday
in February, Boswell takes her spot next to 86-year-old Tela Murray. She’s not
a CC Young resident but wouldn’t miss her Monday hour (which usually extends to
two) for making these. Her task kicks off the whole process: Flattening crumpled
bags as smoothly as if they’ve been ironed.
“I’m a
perfectionist,” she says.
She hands the
flattened bags to Boswell, who lops off the handles and bottom seams, then cuts
what’s left into four three-inch-wide strips — loops, really. Around the
tables, a few volunteers tie the loops into long plastic ropes, while others
like Judy Hubenak, 80, are rolling them into “plarns” (plastic balls of yarn).
“I can’t crochet
because of carpal tunnel syndrome,” Hubenak says. “See how fast Annie is moving
her crochet hook?”
Annie is Annie
Palacios, 83, who learned to crochet by watching her mother.
“This is hard to do,”
she says, matter-of-factly, as her fingers fly. “The plastic doesn’t flow; it
doesn’t slide like yarn. I’ve been working on this one for three weeks.”
Adding
some color
Also participating
are Carol Shinoda, 73, whose grandmother taught her the craft, and Betty
Martinez, 88, whose mat is vibrant with purples and blues and oranges. The
bright colors can in large part be credited to Marilyn Hamilton, who began
keeping an eye out for bags in shades other than beige and white.
She found some at
Toys R Us and explained the Happy Hookers’ mission to the store manager.
“I’d go in every six
weeks, and there would be a big bag that said ‘bags for lady’ waiting for me,”
says Hamilton, who tends to mostly work on the mats at home. “When the Toys R
Us stores shut down, the manager called and said she had some bags for me. I
went to pick them up, and there were 5,000. I have a sunroom in my house, and
it’s all bags.”
Dollar General’s
yellow bags are always a bright addition, as are orange and blue ones from the
now-closed Babies R Us. Hamilton asked a local cleaner for any extra of their
turquoise bags, which Judith Banes, who is sitting at the same table on this
Monday morning, likes including in her crocheting. She also uses clear
dry-cleaner bags as well as some black bags she gets at a nearby liquor store.
“I’ve made 12 of
these,” says Banes, 73. She plans her patterns, often crocheting stripes and
borders in the mats she works on even after leaving the Monday gatherings. “I
crocheted when we drove to Colorado and back, and that’s 14 hours each way.”
Sending
messages
Joan Jackson, 87,
hadn’t crocheted in 50 years. Then she joined Happy Hookers, sitting today next
to her church friend Hamilton. And as she turns plastic strips into tidy
stitches, Jackson often spots a message her friend has written with a black
Sharpie pen:
May God give you a
place of shelter.
Lord, guide my path.
Don’t give up.
You are a child of
God.
“When I first started doing this,” Hamilton
says, “I thought we ought to be offering prayers for the people who sleep on
and under these. I began writing blessings on some of the strips I roll into a
ball. It takes 30 to 40 balls to make one mat, so someone might have 30 to 40
blessings on their mat.”
Those sleeping there
probably won’t see what she writes, but that’s not the point, Hamilton says.
Instead, she hopes whoever does find rest on what she’s helped create feels an
unexpected, unexplained sense of comfort.
“These are
intercessory prayers,” she says, “the very best kind.”
Leslie Barker is a Richardson
freelance writer and former health and fitness reporter for The Dallas Morning
News.
How
to help
At this point, the
Happy Hookers don’t need any more plastic bags. But if you can cut, fold or
especially crochet and would like to help, email Brianna Brown at brianna.brown@sbcglobal.net.
Leslie Barker, Special Contributor. Leslie Barker is a
Richardson freelance writer and former health and fitness reporter for The
Dallas Morning News.
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