At St. Juliana’s Catholic School in West Palm Beach, Katie Bowers challenged her fifth-grade class to come up with a project that would help the homeless.
“I wanted them to know the importance of looking out for their neighbor, loving their neighbor and doing things for others,” Bowers said.
After putting the challenge out to the class, a student suggested they make sleeping mats out of plastic bags.
Everyone thought it was a great idea, so once or twice a week Bowers’ class got together with others and put together plarn (plastic yarn). The plarn was then taken to parents who volunteered their time to crochet them together.
All together they created two mats, each made up of 500 plastic bags.
The finished mats will be distributed by the church's Office of Social Ministry.
“I’m super proud of them. I think that they learned the message, bringing our faith to action and taking care of our environment,” Bowers said.