Buddy Blankets bring ‘love, comfort and hope’ to Adelaide rough sleepers
- 8 hours ago
- 2 min read
BY KIRRALEE NICOLLE
The Salvation Army in Adelaide recently collaborated with Life FM radio station to create Buddy Blankets, an innovative source of warmth for those sleeping rough.
The blankets, made from repurposed chip packets and plastic wrap, were then distributed to various social service programs, including The Salvation Army’s Unley and Arndale corps.
The blankets, created from collected and donated materials and pieced together in workshops across the region, are then distributed to faith-based services to be passed on to recipients. On the back of each blanket, workshop participants are encouraged to write messages of hope or Bible verses.
Arndale Corps Officer Major Gaye Day said her corps has been collaborating with Life FM for the past year. This year, the corps hosted a workshop and received more than 75 blankets, as well as other assistance items including foil blankets, gloves, beanies, socks and scarves to then pass on to community members.
“When we hand them out, all the community members are very excited and quite amazed, and [are] looking forward to being warm at night and waterproof,” Gaye said.
She said when the team hosted the workshop, one community member experiencing homelessness walked in and requested a Buddy Blanket, as he had heard of how beneficial they were. She also said the workshops and chip-packet collections were a great opportunity to meet new community members of all ages who had chosen to become involved.
“I think it was a really good collaboration,” she said. “It’s not just about the Buddy Blankets we hand out, it’s even just in the process of creating the Buddy Blankets and getting chip packets brought in. Some of them were excited that they got to eat chips because [they felt] it gave them permission!
The process of turning chip packets into blankets requires a team effort. Image: Supplied
“It was really good to have the whole community working on a project.”
Gaye said it was also very beneficial to have so many blankets on hand, which packed down small enough to store easily. She said the unusual make of the blankets was also a connection point, and the messages written on them also prompted conversations.
“If we had 75 normal blankets, we wouldn’t have anywhere to store them,” she said. “These ones [require] less storage space so we can [focus on] handing them out to people in need rather than worrying about the storage room.
“They’re fun to make and they’re a novelty, so they [also] start conversation.
“It’s not just a blanket, but hopefully a bit of love, comfort and hope as they read those messages.”
