NEW HAVEN, CT - From New Haven Police Department: Cops in New Haven will soon be helping our homeless stay a bit drier and warmer, thanks to the efforts of some talented locals. The needles we’re talking about are those used for interlocking loops of materials– specifically eleven and a half inch crochet hooks. The materials are not fabrics, but rather plastic shopping bags.
These generous efforts are the brainchild of Susan Skalka. Skalka, a community volunteer, had seen bed-rolls made from crocheted shopping bags while on her computer, and thought it was a great idea. Her civic mindedness made her wonder how this could be best utilized for charity. That thought process led her to the New Haven Police Department.
Skalka met with Detective Rosealee Reid and Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova. She pitched the idea that the bed-rolls could be used by New Haven’s homeless and that neighborhood cops could help in identifying those in need.
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There didn’t seem to be much sense in providing them to shelters. Those at shelters have beds for the night. Some in our community, though, do not utilize shelters or ‘soup-kitchens’. Some prefer or feel more at ease bedding down outside or in their makeshift ‘homes’. Those are the people we feel could most use these (surprisingly) comfortable bed-rolls.
Skalka’s team of volunteers’ number in the low forties. Some are seniors from The Towers (Tower One and Tower East). This mature brigade of wise women prepare the collected and donated plastic shopping bags by flattening then strip-cutting them for the second team. The repurposed and readied strips are given to adults and students alike, who painstakingly crochet them into bed-rolls – a process that takes, on average, a month per blanket. Between five and six hundred bags are needed for each finished product.
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The NHPD’s Quartermaster, Karizma Schloss heard of this project and wanted to help. Karizma has been collecting donated bags for months at the PD Supply Room and encourages Officers and the public alike, to drop them off. She’s provided a steady stream of materials to the ‘crochet corps’.
The efforts to produce these bed-rolls go beyond looping and connecting. Reid and Skalka are always on the lookout for potential donors. They solicit bags from supermarkets and other retailers who use those pesky pieces of plastic that can drive us insane while trying to un-stick and open them.
The efforts to get these bed-rolls to those in need will be those of officers working with their District Managers. We’ve got about twenty-five completed thus far. More are being created and will soon be on their way. Cops know many of those in need and will be offering these as they become available.
We want your bags! Donations can be made at The Towers (Tower One entrance), 18 Tower Ln., and at Police Headquarters, 1 Union Avenue.
Those with questions and contact Susan Skalka at sderaemail@aol.com, Detective Rosealee Reid at rreid@newhavenct.gov or Sarah Moskowitz (at The Towers) at sarah@towerone.org .
Image via Shutterstock
