What started as an idea to help our homeless population has turned into thousands of plastic grocery bags, hundreds of volunteer hours, and a powerful lesson in compassion for two local Girl Scouts. Ninth-graders Stephana Pinnick and Addie Coe of Mountain Brook Girl Scout Troop 26103 are transforming discarded plastic bags into woven sleeping mats for people experiencing homelessness as part of their Silver Award project—the second-highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. “We wanted to find a way to make life easier for people living on the street,” says Addie.
The girls, longtime troop members, are no strangers to service. Their troop previously earned Bronze Awards in fifth grade by organizing a community-wide book drive to create a lending library at a Jefferson County school. In a full-circle moment, their troop leaders are their mothers—women who were once Girl Scouts together in the very same troop.
Stephana Pinnick
The Silver Award challenges girls to identify a problem in their community and create a lasting solution. Unlike previous service projects, the work must be sustainable for at least three years, require extensive hours, and involve fewer participants. For Stephana and Addie, that meant dedicating at least 50 hours each to a meaningful cause. After considering several issues facing Birmingham, the girls landed on homelessness.
“We saw that people who were homeless often didn’t have anything to sleep on,” Addie explains. “Sleeping on the ground can lead to hypothermia, pain, and soreness along with many other issues.” Stephana had noticed the same thing for years. “People without homes have to sleep on concrete, grass, or anywhere they can find,” she says. “They have to sleep out there when it is cold, hot, and even rainy. These mats are easy to carry, provide protection from the weather, and provide a padded place to sleep.”
Before beginning the project, the girls contacted Don Lupo with the City of Birmingham to learn more about homelessness and identify ways to distribute the mats. Through those connections, the mats are now being shared with the community through Food for Our Journey.
Stephana Pinnick
The process itself is no small undertaking. First comes collecting bags—lots of them. Friends, neighbors, businesses, churches, and schools from across Central Alabama have pitched in, donating giant bags full of grocery sacks. Community partners such as Crestline Elementary, St. Francis Xavier Church, Walmart in Anniston, and Gaines Gault Hendrix have all contributed to the effort. Then comes the labor. The girls flatten each plastic bag, cut off the handles and bottoms, and tie the remaining loops together to create long strands of “plarn”—plastic yarn. Once rolled into balls, the plarn is woven by hand on a loom the girls built themselves. Each mat requires around 700 plastic bags and about four hours of weaving. Just creating the base of a single mat takes seven balls of plarn, with each ball containing roughly 40 bags.
Stephana Pinnick
Their initial goal was 50 mats. By the time the project is complete, Stephana and Addie estimate they will have collected an astonishing 70,000 plastic bags and contributed more than 150 service hours each, which is well beyond the project requirement. “This project is important to me because I want to be able to help people in any way that I can and try to make their lives easier,” says Addie. “People should always do their best to support each other, especially if others need help.”
Stephana hopes their work inspires others—especially young people—to realize they can make a difference, too. “Everyone deserves a place to sleep,” she says. “We should do our best to help our neighbors in hopes to make their lives easier.” To ensure the project continues long after their Silver Award is complete, the girls are also creating instructional videos teaching others how to make sleeping mats. In the end, what Stephana and Addie are weaving together is more than plastic bags; it’s the reminder that even small hands can make a big impact.