The youth of St. Matthew Catholic Church in Tyrone are reaching out to help those in need. The Prism Youth Group for teens continues to work on its service project of assembling sleeping bags for Atlanta’s homeless and serving in an Atlanta soup kitchen, while elementary aged children bring in weekly donations for local food pantries every week when they gather for their Sunday Parish School of Religion classes.

About a dozen teens gather to fill and hand-knot sleeping bag shells which are pre-sewn by Lydia Gagnon, St. Matthew Catholic Church Prism Youth Group Head of Service Projects. Part of a grassroots nationwide effort, The Sleeping Bag Project began this fall at St. Matthew as a service project through which candidates for the Sacrament of Confirmation can perform their required service to the community. The teens attend several different local high schools in Fayette and Coweta counties, including Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, and Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School in Fairburn.

“The Sleeping Bag Project allows the students to take the time to think about someone other than themselves, and the fact that there is a world in need and they can do something to help,” says Lydia Gagnon, St. Matthew Catholic Church Prism Youth Group Head of Service Projects. The project is inspired by the nationwide effort called ‘My Brother’s Keeper Quilt Group’ started by Flo Wheatly in 1985. Wheatly devised the process of making free emergency sleeping bags from clean recycled fabrics and called the pattern “The Ugly Quilt.” She designed the sleeping bag pattern as an easy, cost-free way to help the homeless by preventing hypothermia on the streets. They are designed for warmth rather than beauty so that they do not have a market value to assure that the homeless are the beneficiaries. “The Ugly Quilt” pattern is viewable at www.uglyquilts.org.

Wheatly was inspired to help people who lived on the street because a homeless person came to her aid when she needed it most. One rainy and cold evening she had gotten lost while trying to get her cancer-ridden 14-year old son to a treatment in New York City. A homeless man saw her trying to help her ill son who had collapsed, and led them to a subway station, accompanied her on the entire ride and then flagged a cab for her to get them to the hospital. When she offered him some money for thanks, he waved it away and simply said “Don’t abandon me,” before he left.

She was so moved that after her son recovered from his illness, she devised “The Ugly Quilt” pattern and began making sleeping bags and distributing them with her husband. The grass roots project spread by word of mouth throughout the United States. The sleeping bags made at St. Matthew are distributed to homeless persons in Atlanta who are identified with the advice of Catholic Charities.

On alternate months, the teens go to Atlanta to the soup kitchen operated by Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, which feeds between 400 and 700 meals to the homeless each weekend.

A service project for the elementary aged children in the parish religious education program on Sundays was inspired by a desire to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Each class brings in a designated type of item which rotates among the grades every month. The type of items were selected in coordination with the designated beneficiaries - the St. Vincent De Paul Society at Holy Trinity Church in Peachtree City and Fayette Samaritans Food Pantry, who requested the diverse items they need most to serve their constituents. Items include dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, new socks and underwear, toilet paper and paper towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and non perishable food items such as cooking oil, tuna, spaghetti and sauce, and canned beans or soup. The program has brought in almost 800 items in just two months.

“Some of these items were identified because they cannot be bought with food stamps but are still so much in need,” says Vivian Sarkis, Project Coordinator. “We wanted to support our sister church Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City and Fayette Samaritans, and this helps diversify what their food pantries can offer,” she says. Sarkis coordinates the project, creating class incentives and reminders, reporting results, and taking the items each week to the food pantries.

“There is much more hunger in Fayette and Coweta counties than people realize,” says Deacon Bill Hampton, of St. Matthew Catholic Church.

St. Matthew Catholic Church is located at 215 Kirkley Road in Tyrone, Ga. Weekday Mass Schedule is Tuesday and Thursday at 9 a.m., Wednesday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 5 p.m., Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information call 770-964-5804.

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