Vegas Stronger Champion: Crocheter Lynda Ortiz turns plastic bags into sleeping mats

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — This month's Vegas Stronger Champion takes misprinted sacks from a local plastic bag manufacturer and turns them into sleeping mats for the homeless. That process is easier said than done!

"My whole group walks in, nothing but positivity, smiles on their faces, their project in their hand, and just happy to be there," Lynda Ortiz told Channel 13 as a team of volunteers turn stacks of unusable plastic bags into sleeping mats.

"If it's hot, they don't get hot. If it's dirty, they don't get dirty. It's comfortable," Ortiz said of the sleeping mats. "I've laid on them myself, and they can be washed."

Each mat takes approximately 600 plastic bags to make and the entire process requires roughly 24 hours to complete. The plastic bags, which are donated from a local manufacturer, are cut into strips, looped into plastic yarn— also known as plarn— and crocheted into the finished product.

"I was able to cut and loop the six hundred bags and crochet them in about 22.5 hours," said Merri Medley of The Mats Project . "That was the fastest I could do it."

Working together in teams at volunteer sites across the Las Vegas valley each week, volunteers take a few months to make a batch of 40 mats.

"Once we get that magic number of mats, we also include a drawstring bag with everyday essentials, and a little note with a crochet card that has words of inspiration to remind the recipients that they do matter and they are loved and they are valued," Medley said.

The Mats Project partners with Shine a Light , another non-profit, to distribute the mats and care kits to people who live in underground flood channels around Las Vegas.

"Shine a Light is a local organization here in Las Vegas and they go out to the people that are in the tunnels," volunteer coordinator Tanya Rodriguez told Channel 13. "From what we understand, homelessness has increased. I think last year it was about 6,000 people that were unhoused, and we're up to over 8,000 people this year."

Lynda Ortiz said that it's easy for many of us to overlook the problem of homelessness.

I think because they do hide themselves that it's not as out there, we don't really know as bad as it really is until we go with the people that are delivering the mats, and they start telling us the stories. That's when it's like 'oh my gosh, it's not getting any better.'

Ortiz's fellow volunteers told us she leads multiple meet-ups every month. Findlay Automotive Group's Jeff Giles recognized Lynda Ortiz as this month's Vegas Stronger Champion

"We've heard about what you're doing with the mats that you're building and crocheting together and we just think it's a wonderful thing that you're doing for the community and for the people that need help the most," Giles told Ortiz as he presented her a check for $599.

"For that reason we want to highlight you as our Vegas Stronger Champion, because we think that you exemplify the best of Las Vegas. And we wanted to give you this small token of our appreciation, and this is for you personally. We love what you're doing and thank you."