Awesome Foundation Youngstown

The trustees of Awesome Foundation Youngstown are proud to announce that local artist Kristina Nicholas is the winner of our inaugural $1,000 grant for her project submission “Craft for Humanity: Creativity with a Mission!”

As detailed in her submission, Kristina’s humanitarian and eco-friendly project seeks to teach people the art form of crochet by creating sleeping mats made of plarn, or upcycled (creative reuse) plastic shopping bags, and giving them to people in need. Each sleeping mat is expected to keep 500-700 plastic bags out of the landfill. Kristina will use her award money to purchase equipment such as scissors, crochet needles, and customized, 3D Printed crochet needles produced by local resources.

Kristina hopes that her project will “give access to children and adults of all ages to the art form of crocheting while also using creativity to provide sleeping mats to individuals and organizations that need help. This project would focus on involving city of Youngstown church groups, knitting and/or crochet groups, youth groups, nursing homes, Youngstown City School children, Youngstown State University students, and more.

St. Vincent De Paul Society’s W Front Street location has agreed to be a drop-off site for plastic grocery bag donations and distribution site for the finished plarn sleeping mats by giving them to those in need. Kristina’s goal is to produce 1,000 plarn sleeping mats for Youngstown’s less fortunate.

For more information, please visit http://youngstownaf.org/ or http://mahoningsvdp.org/ or contact Kristina Nicholas ([email protected]), RJ Thompson ([email protected]), or Glenniece Bedo via e-mail ([email protected]) or via phone at 330-333-3601.

Plastic bags can be delivered to St. Vincent De Paul Society located at 208 W Front St., Youngstown, Ohio 44503. Awesome Foundation Youngstown is fiscally sponsored by the Economic Action Group, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. If you are interested in donating financial resources, please contact [email protected].

// SUBMITTED PROPOSAL:

Here's my idea: “Craft for Humanity: Creativity with a Mission“

Craft for Humanity, crochet a plarn sleeping mat for the homeless.

Have you heard of plarn? Plarn is the ‘yarn’ that is used to crochet the plastic mats. It’s constructed from plastic bags. The concept is pretty simple but simply AWESOME. Using upcycled crocheted plastic shopping bags and turning them into functional items. For this specific project sleeping mats would be made.

The sleeping mats are intended for people who are less fortunate. These crochet mats are remarkable comfortable and offer just enough to create a barrier between the ground and the body, to help retain body heat while sleeping. It’s no problem if the mats get wet as they can easily be dried. The mats are also a cleaner way of sleeping. Bugs don’t like them. And when dirty, they can be easily hosed off, shaken out and be good to go again. They are portable as well, the crochet plastic makes for a very lightweight mat.

Each mat will keep 500-700 plastic bags out of the landfill. Humanitarian and eco-friendly, what is not to love?!

This AWESOME project allows children and adults of all ages to get access to the art form of crocheting while also using creativity to provide sleeping mats to individuals and organizations that need help. This project would focus on involving city of Youngstown church groups, knitting and/or crochet groups, youth groups, nursing homes, Youngstown City School children, etc.

Sleeping Mat Materials Needed: • Plastic Bags (500-700 per mat) • Bamboo Crochet Needles (size: O or P) • Scissors

The goal is a 3’x6’ size plastic yarn mat.

How to make plarn: 1. Lay out and smooth plastic bags. 2. Fold in bottom and side pleats of bags. 3. Cut off horizontally the top and bottom of the bag. 4. Fold bag into accordion. 5. Snip ends off each “roll” of bags you will then have many loops of plastic aka plarn. 6. With a simple slip knot, each loop is tied together. 7. Roll attached loops into a ball of plarn.

How I will use the money:

The award money will go towards:

• Crochet Needles (Average bulk retail: $1.30/each) • Scissors (Average bulk retail: .40/each)

We would serve over 1,000 people by giving them access to a creative art process and over a 1,000 people who need help in the city of Youngstown.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Plarn-Plastic-Bag-Yarn-For-Knitting-/

A little about me:

The Creative Spark is a mix of artists dedicated to amplifying the voices of grassroots movements through art & community engagement.

OUR STORY: Four individuals, with a passion for creativity, came together and decided to begin cultivating activities for people to "ignite their inner artist". Everyone has a creative spark in them and the goal is to enrich the Mahoning Valley by holding workshops at various locations in the community.

Projects that occur with the City of Youngstown, Ohio take precedence over projects that do not. Does your project occur in Youngstown? (Yes/No)

Yes

Have you applied to any other grant-giving organizations for support? If so, have you received any awards and in what value?

We have not applied for other funding.

Have you applied to other Awesome Foundation chapters for support? If so, which chapters?

Have a crazy brilliant idea that needs funding? We award $1,000 grants every year. It couldn't be simpler! Your idea is yours alone. We don't want a stake in it. We just want to help you make it happen!

We all know how Awesome it is to live, work and play in the City of Youngstown! This dedicated group wants to help those who can make our community even better with just a little help from some friends.

Awesome Foundation Youngstown will be giving out an annual grant (in its first year) of $1000 to an individual or group who can articulate and deliver great projects to make our City even more vibrant and awesome to live in. Have an idea? Please fill out an application!!

Please note that we do not typically fund: travel, salaries, or living expenses. PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT PROJECTS BASED IN THE CITY OF YOUNGSTOWN TAKE PRIORITY. Applicants that are located out of our service area (Eastern Ohio & western Pennsylvania counties Beaver, Lawrence, and Mercer) must have a local partner and project located within our coverage area for their proposals to be considered.

If you have a question about the application process, please email us at [email protected]. Those unable to complete the application online are encouraged to e-mail as well.