Toni Erickson
Although this dedicated group doesn’t have an official name, their purpose is clear—they work together and individually each month to support a meaningful cause of making mats for people in need. The group has been active in PebbleCreek for about four years and meets at Kathy Cheek’s home on the third Tuesday of every month from 1 to 3 p.m.
Kathy first learned how to make mats for the unsheltered through a church group in Kansas City, Mo. When she and her husband moved to PebbleCreek in June 2019, she saw an ad from the André House requesting bottled water for the homeless. After delivering donations, she noticed a woman sleeping on the asphalt in the parking lot—a moment that inspired her to start a local group.
Since then, the group has produced approximately 1,200 mats. The process is hands-on and collaborative: plastic bags are flattened, cut into strips, linked together to form balls resembling yarn, and then crocheted by six dedicated members into 3-by-6-foot mats that provide warmth and comfort to those in need.
Those who were at the Oct. 21 afternoon work session: Laurie Scott, Jan Frustaglia, Ann Lehman, Jean Kotula, Marie Randall, Cynthia Thompson, Kathy Cheek (coordinator), Carol Pierce, Jeanne Schimmelphennig, and Pamela Frye. Also present to help with mat production was the photographer, Toni Erickson.