Wellesley WE Team creates milk bag mattresses for those in need
After more than a year’s worth of work, students at Wellesley Public School are ready to give 10 milk bag mattresses to needy recipients across the world.
The local school’s WE Team has collected and woven 5,000 milk bags into 10 comfy mattresses — this week the mats are being delivered to Mississauga and will eventually be shipped worldwide to provide a comfortable sleeping surface for families.
“This project gave students a sense of what it’s like to do work for others, and students can acknowledge how lucky they are to have a home and a bed to sleep on,” said teacher Keri Beu, who helps run the school’s WE Team.
Wellesley’s WE Team is a social justice group for Grades 6-8 run through the Free The Children organization — it’s a group Wellesley Public School has gladly participated in for about 10 years.
“The whole model is about empowering people, giving back to communities and helping them grow,” said Beu, who has been involved for about five years. “If schools want we can join the program and teach students about promoting social justice and change in the world.”
Their involvement has seen students help create supply kits for other students at a school in Ghana, participate in local food drives, collect backpacks and blankets for local refugee families and more.
For the past two school years the team has been working on this project through an organization called Milk Bags Unlimited — launched in 2010, the nonprofit group sends soft, cushy beds to places with natural disasters and health epidemics.
Beds are made entirely of colourful four-litre milk bags that would otherwise end up in landfill sites (and are incapable of disintegrating).
After around a decade of successful projects, Beu wanted to participate in this specific initiative to challenge staff and students alike to do even more.
“This specific project we wanted to have the kids do more than just collecting something,” said Beu. “It’s been a pretty labour-intensive project for the group ... It’s produced some really great workers.”
The first year involved mostly collection, but this school year has seen a team of around 30 students get a taste of the work involved in putting together even just one single mat.
Looms were constructed to ease the process of weaving the bags together, and students were then split into teams that would cut, clean and loop the bags together. That process has been going on since September, showcasing just how long it takes to turn 490 bags into one single mattress.
With only 20 minutes on nutrition breaks for the group to work together, it’s taken many, many meetings to complete the project. But it’s a journey that will leave an impact on Wellesley students.
“It gives you a sense of pride to do something for somebody else,” said Beu. “There’s a sense of the global community and how many different ways you can reach out to help others in need.”