Caring Hearts Helping Hands

Woohoo to our new leader who has finished her very first knitted pillow. Way to go Judy by showing we can all do this. Some folks can crochet, some can knit, but everyone can do something.

We still need volunteers who can flatten, fold, and/or cut plastic bags. We will gladly teach you whichever part you want to learn! There are many opportunities to put your helping hands to great use in helping the homeless in our community.

In the process you will find friends in our group who share a commitment not only to help others but a commitment to one another to encourage each other. We welcome you to come learn, laugh, and be blessed as you help others. The blessings go both ways.

We can also use as many crocheted, knitted, or woven toboggans, beanie’s, and any neck scarves as we can muster between now and Christmas! Socks or blankets that you wish to donate are coveted as well for cold winter weather can be harsh.

Our meetings are held on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 am until noon at the Family Life Center across the street from the Sanctuary of Southern Oaks Baptist Church at 601 E. Amherst Dr., Tyler, Tx. We look forward to welcoming you. 😊

In case you’re confused by our silence of late, hope this clears up the confusion:
YES, we are still making plastic bag sleeping mats.
YES, we still need more volunteers lending helping hands.
NO, you don’t have to crochet.
YES, we need more volunteers who can flatten, fold and cut plastic bags. We are glad to show you how easy it’s done.
NO, there are no fees or costs to you other than just giving us a little of your time.
YES, we still meet every Wed. from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Stay as long as you can and being a snack if you wish.
WHERE? We still meet in the Family Life Center, across E. Amherst St from the main building of Southern Oaks Baptist Church. 600 E Amherst St. Tyler Tx. 75702
MORE QUESTIONS? Join us at our workshop and we can answer all your questions. We would love to meet you and show you the whole process from start to finish. You don’t have to do it all. Just find where it suits you best and go from there. We are always open to new ideas also. Won’t you come share your thoughts and questions with us?

Smiling faces continue making mats for our homeless friends not because we have to — but because we want to. Mary Grace shows her latest completed sleeping mat and pillow. This was crocheted using all yellow Dollar General bags and done with 1/2 double crochet stitches in the “length” of rows instead of the “width” of rows. GREAT JOB! We love her work and her smiling face at our weekly workshops.

We meet every Wed. at Southern Oaks Baptist Church, Family Life Center (next to the tennis courts), 600 E. Amherst Dr., Tyler, TX from 9:30 am to 2 pm. You can learn how to use plastic bags to create mats with a group of folks who have hearts that care to help others.

We are in our 6th year of making sleeping mats for our homeless friends out of plastic bags. During this time we have made over 500 sleeping mats, even with Covid practically shutting us down in 2020 and 2021.

We are struggling to find volunteers who are willing to devote a few hours one day a week to help us flatten, fold, and cut bags for those who are crocheting the mats.

We meet on Wednesdays at Southern Oaks Baptist Church, in the Family Life Center next to the tennis courts, 600 E. Amherst Dr, Tyler, TX.

Join us from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. Can’t stay that long? Come and go whatever time you have available between 9:30 am and 2 pm, or bring a snack or sack lunch and stay for the entire time.

Discover where you can fit into this CaringHelping project to help others. If you can crochet, we have a crochet hook for you. Otherwise we need plenty of bag prep volunteers to help us fold, flatten and/or cut the bags. Training is provided. (We are not taking plastic bags at this time until we get our current pile whittled down. )

The blessings go both ways. It’s amazing what happens when you help someone who can’t thank you, yet you’ve touched their heart in a very special way. Through this ministry we have learned that we are all just one life event away from being homeless. Help us help others as we are supposed to do. Love one another. Care for one another. Help one another. It’s part of the “Love thy neighbor” theme and we are, after all, People Helping People. Hope to see you soon. ❤️

A few informative notes:

•We are winding down to prepare for the Holidays. Only 2 more workshops left this year. We will meet Wed. Dec. 7, 2022
and Wed. Dec. 14, 2022
Both days we will meet from 10 am-Noon in the Family Life Center of Southern Oaks Baptist Church, 600 E. Amherst Dr., Tyler, TX.

•We won’t hold any other workshops until we start back up on Jan. 11, 2023. This is to give all our volunteers time to spend with their families during the holidays.

•Beginning Jan. 11, 2023 we will meet at the same place on Wednesdays, but new hours from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. You can come and go, or come and stay and bring a sack lunch if you wish.

Latest update for our Total Mats from June 2017 to Dec. 2022
Total mats with pillows: 556
Total volunteer hours: 44,480
Total plastic bags used: 361,400
Again, a great big THANK YOU to all of our volunteers!❤️

Another great blessing between 2 outstanding groups! The Mollie Moore Davis 217, United Daughters of the Confederacy has a program called “Stockings for Soldiers”. They created and stuffed Christmas Stockings for soldiers in San Antonio. They reached out to our Sleeping Mats group asking if we could help. Rather than stitching the stockings closed to prevent spillage in shipping, they asked if we could crochet winter hats to cover the stocking’s opening. They asked if we could provide 25-35 hats. Two of our amazing crocheters met this task in short order. Special thanks to Sandy Worster and Jennifer Hendrix for their quick turnaround in getting the hats ready, and a huge thank you to Susan Newman for allowing us to be a part of this great project. Blessings go both ways in everything we do to help others. The stockings are on their way to San Antonio. We love all of our Volunteers!!! ❤️

It’s been a great week! Giving thanks a little early! Special Thank You to Melinda Hermanns and her cousin for taking 25 Sleeping Mats to inner city Dallas to Our Calling Ministry for their work with the homeless there. They were quite grateful and we were blessed to be able to help. The mats and pillows are placed in IKEA bags for ease of transporting. After the mats were dropped off, Melinda graciously stopped at IKEA once again and picked up another 50 bags! Blessings after blessings. ❤️

Our Wed. morning workshops run every week from 10 am til noon at Southern Oaks Baptist Church. We won’t meet the Wed. during Thanksgiving week and December 14th will be our last workshop of 2022 but we will gear back up again starting Jan. 11, 2023. We have a lot of fun and conversation in our Wed. gatherings. We flatten, fold and cut bags into “plarn” for our crocheters to make mats and pillows. So everyone can find which task(s) they enjoy. You don’t have to crochet but everyone can do something. Won’t you consider joining us. Free training. Enjoy meeting new friends who have a passion to help the homeless or learn the process then work from home if you need to. We are flexible and we need more hands! ❤️

It’s been awhile but we have been busy. Enjoy these photos and be sure to read the captions. We need more hands if you have a couple of hours to spare on Wed. mornings.

Special thanks to Pastor Mark Skorheim and Jesus Closet for helping distribute our sleeping mats to those in need, ministering to both body and spirit.

Another beautiful mat and pillow from Yvonne. We love our volunteer crocheters!!! ❤️

It takes approx. 650 plastic bags to make a mat and pillow for the homeless. Of those 650 bags, it takes about 60 hours of bag prep followed by around 20 hours of crochet. It is truly a labor of love.
❤️ We love our Volunteers!!!❤️

Still have many folks working from home. These were todays helpers plus Marge who had to leave before we remembered to take photos. It was a great workshop day at Southern Oaks Baptist Church. ❤️

Special Thanks to our faithful Volunteers during the pandemic. Many are still working at home. Some are attending the Wed. morning workshops, and others are dropping off completed mats and pillows, like clockwork.

KUDOS to Caden and his family of volunteers, to Carlyn, Yvonne, Kipper, and Marge who have each turned in completed mats in the last several weeks. Also KUDOS to Anna, Bonnie, Marge and Yvonne for keeping our workshops lively as they crochet and/or turn bags into plarn.

Special welcome to our newest volunteers: Nikki, E.B., and Mary Grace. We are delighted to have you join us in helping the homeless!

Last but not least, a huge Thank You to all our volunteers who are still working so faithfully from home to help support our efforts to help those in need: crocheting hats and scarves, collecting socks, bibles, toiletries, making Blessing Bags, cutting bags into plarn for our crocheters, and much more. We can’t do this without all the behind the scenes work you are ALL doing.

If anyone would like more information on how you can help, please call us at (903)590-0582 and leave your name and number. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

NOTE: We are in our 5th Year and still going strong, in spite of COVID. To date, we have delivered over 500 sleeping mats and matching pillows since we began. That’s an equivalent of 350,000 plastic bags kept out of the landfills and over 40,000 volunteer hours! We couldn’t have done this without each of YOU. ❤️

If you can flatten, fold and cut (with sharp scissors) like the photo below, we need YOU to help us make plastic bag sleeping mats. The photo shows pictures with words. We need plastic bags cut into 3” wide pieces of “plarn” (plastic yarn”) as shown. Bags must be clean, without holes, and cuts must be straight and without snags. Call if questions or if you want to see a demonstration. (903)590-0582. Leave your name, number, and a brief message. We would love to help you get started helping us to help others.

We are a great “Work From Home” opportunity during Covid. Help those in need and save the landfill by repurposing plastic bags. We are People Helping People.

Marge B. showing her 1st completed sleeping mat and pillow. She’s got 3 more going at the same time now and is our newest volunteer! She demonstrates a real passion for helping others and we are so thrilled to have her on board. ❤️

Limited seating is available in our weekly workshops due to Covid and social distancing. Please call if you’re interested in learning more, and leave your name, phone number and a brief message to (903)590-0582.

Trude Park:
Trude started volunteering with us in 2017. She wanted to crochet mats but said she only knew how to knit. I had no clue the directions she would need to knit, so Trude created her own pattern. Since then she has made numerous mats for children and for adults - each one very beautiful and with striking color patterns. In our weekly workshops she kept us all entertained with her humorous stories and her contagious smile! Since COVID, when we were mandated to shut down, she continued to knit mats from home but complained about missing the camaraderie of the workshops.

With a sad heart, she spent the last year trying to finish her last mat. Her husband, Danny, said she carried it around trying to finish it but was too confused to remember what she was supposed to do. It was the one thing she held onto until she couldn’t anymore due to end stages of Alzheimers.

It is with great sadness to hear that Trude passed away early this morning.

Her husband shared the following story with me and this is the part of their story that put a smile on my face. It’s the Trude I remember:

His neighbor drives him to the Nursing Home to see her. While they were sitting with Trude he said she doesn’t open her eyes or show any signs of communication. But, he told me, she was constantly moving her fingers. He asked Trude if she was knitting and she had a huge grin on her face. Then the neighbor said, “Trude, of all the mats you’ve made, I believe this one is the most beautiful of them all.”

Her husband said she never opened her eyes, but she almost giggled, and kept “knitting”.

Please keep her sweet family in your prayers. She will be greatly missed. - Ferna

RAs Donate to Homeless: Miguel E., and Taylor H., leaders of the Royal Ambassadors (R.A.’s) and Jeff S. all of Southern Oaks Baptist Church, and 8-12 young boys (R.A.’s) pulled together to do their part in helping others for the Holidays. They collected and packed 12 mid-sized “Bins of Hope” each filled with: a complete New Testament Bible, flashlights, mens socks and underwear, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, razors and more. The personal sized bins provide a way to keep all the items dry. Each bin contains a drawing with a personal note from one of the boys. A big THANK YOU to the boys and to all involved for making this happen!

The bins and the large bins holding them, were handed over to Pastor Mark Skorheim who runs Jesus Closet, a ministry of Faith Community Church. He was so excited to receive these and the timing was impeccable. The annual Christmas Party Under the Bridge takes place today from 6-8 p.m.

We were also able to give Jesus Closet 26 more crocheted hats from Diane and Ron B., some socks and a few other misc. items. A big thanks to ALL who helped make this season a little better for those in the greatest need. ❤️

Whether it’s a bag full or a trunk full, we always need socks and toiletries. Special thanks to Bonnie P. for donating men’s and women’s socks, and antibacterial body wash. ❤️

Pastor Mark Skorheim and his helper, Meredith loaded up sleeping mats, pillows, clothing, coats, toiletries, shoes, socks, lap blankets and warm hats in their trailer and van as they prepare to distribute through the Jesus Closet ministry of Faith Community Church to meet the needs of many of the Tyler Area homeless with both winter and Christmas approaching. We couldn’t do what we do without the amazing volunteers who create, collect, and donate and who distribute throughout our community. A great big THANK YOU to ALL! ❤️

Recently we posted that Diane B presented us with 22 crocheted hats for our homeless friends. This week she and her husband Ron brought us another box of 26 hats for a total so far of 48 hats. We have several other wonderful volunteers making hats, scarves and ear warmers. Special THANK YOU to Diane and Ron B., Carlyn S., Sandy W., Jenifer H., and Caden H. Winter is coming. ❤️

Students from Cohort 3 (the 3rd class) of Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) program, and Cohort 4, both from The University of Texas at Tyler, made a major contribution to help Tyler area homeless.

Cohort 3 students provided their skills and talents in making 22 plarn pillows and 2 plastic bag sleeping mats. Cohort 3 and 4 gathered supplies.

Members of the Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA), who are concurrently in the OT Graduate program at UT Tyler, also collected and donated socks, feminine hygiene products, and miscellaneous clothing items.

Dixie assisted with the SOTA collection. Brenna, Drs. Hebert, Faghihifar, and Hermanns assisted with collecting, coordinating, storing and delivering the items to Caring Hearts and Helping Hands for distribution.

With a thankful heart for their huge demonstration of kindness and generosity, please applaud the work of so many students and staff who made this possible.

Cohort 3: Alyssa B., Marissa C., Enriko C., Hunter C., Laura DL., Virginia D., Bethany D ., Kristin F ., Marissa G., Miranda G., Jessica G., Stephanie G., Karina H., Amanda J., Catherine L., Cara M., James M., Ashley M., Laura M., Courtney P., Emily S., Annie T., Katelyn T., and Amber W.

Cohort 4: Michael A., Paige B., Megan C., Janna DLS., Alex F., Hailey F., Avery G., Donnal G., Elizabeth H., Hi-Min Kelly H., Kasey J., Jessica L., Weslina M., Sarah M., M., Christina P., Tara P., Brandie P,. Jason P., Lauren R., Jalecia S., Kristyn S., Brooke T., and Brian T.

These generous donations have been given to Jesus Closet, a ministry of Faith Community Church, Pastor Mark Skorheim, for direct distribution to local homeless, and those in the greatest need.

Southern Oaks Baptist Church