Sewing squad turning surgical wraps into sleeping bags

Discarded surgical wraps are getting new life as sleeping bags for the homeless thanks to a new program at Orlando Health – Health Central Hospital in Ocoee. Surgical trays are wrapped in a blue tarp-like material before the sterilization process and can be used only once by hospitals before being thrown away.

This sleeping bag program cuts down on landfill waste and gives folks living outdoors a durable, waterproof and heat-retaining pallet on which to lay their head at night.

Hayley Brown, the hospital’s guest and volunteer services manager, said Health Central Hospital wants to expand its volunteer program and she has been looking at various opportunities. She learned the hospital system’s Dr. Phillips Hospital started a similar initiative with surgical wraps in 2019, and she brought it to Health Central in May.

“This is a great way to get involved and help our community while also growing our volunteer program and providing more opportunities for people to give back,” Brown said.

Orlando Health and the Bloom & Grow Garden Society have a strong community partnership, and when the hospital reached out to garden club president Brenda Knowles, several club members who sew were eager to participate.

Knowles has taken the lead in organizing seamstresses for the ongoing project. Assisting her is Frances Gleason Grubbs, who has a longtime connection to the hospital. She is the daughter of the late Dr. Albert Gleason, once a fixture in the West Orange County medical community and a former chief of staff at Health Central Hospital.

“She’s an excellent seamstress, and I knew I could rely on her for support,” Knowles said of Grubbs.

Several people, mostly garden club members, have been trained on how to sew the wraps together, and they take their sewing machines to the hospital twice a month to work on the project. The group is looking for more seamstresses to volunteer their time as the project expands.

“It sounded like a nice community project … and it’s something that’s needed,” Knowles said. “We’re small, but we plan to grow.”

Anyone wanting to volunteer can email Knowles at [email protected].

Knowles said she was eager to participate because she has been sewing her entire life.

“My grandmother was a seamstress, and she taught me how to sew as a teenager,” she said. “I made all my school clothes, and I sewed all my clothes for many, many years.”

For volunteer Lill Gividen, sewing and volunteering are her passions, so she was eager to join the group. She started sewing in her elementary school 4H club and has been working with her machine ever since.

She has been providing breakfast and lunch for the Matthew’s Hope ministry with the West Orange Women group and has a heart for helping homeless folks. This sewing project seemed to go hand-in-hand with her volunteer work.

Molly Guardia, an eighth-grader at SunRidge Middle School, is helping with the project for community service hours for National Junior Honor Society. She and her grandmother, Elizabeth Zack, are sewing pillows and tote bags for the sleeping bags.

Zack taught her granddaughter how to sew and enjoys the opportunity to sew together to help others.

FROM SURGICAL WRAP TO SLEEPING BAG

Brown said the surgical team collects the wraps and notifies the volunteer department when there are several available for pick-up. On the first and third Mondays of the month, the sewing group — called Helping Hands and Kind Hearts — meets at Health Central to sew. Knowles and Grubbs also deliver them to the few volunteers who sew from home.

The only cost to the hospital is the purchase of thread for the seamstresses, Brown said.

The surgical wraps come in different sizes, so the size of the sleeping bags vary from youth to adult small to extra-large.

The sleeping bags also are kept in the Health Central emergency department for patients who need one after being discharged. The hospital’s community relations department has reached out to local shelters, too, to coordinate providing the sleeping bags.

They are lightweight and manageable for people living on the streets, Knowles said.

In just two months, the group has finished 32 sleeping bags, 32 tote bags and 30 pillows.