Ogden church supporting local homeless with ‘scarf bomb’
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- Scarves, hats and mittens knitted by members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ogden are pictured Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
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- Scarves, hats and mittens knitted by members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ogden are pictured Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
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- Scarves, hats and mittens knitted by members of the First Presbyterian Church of Ogden are pictured Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
OGDEN — Members of the congregation at the First Presbyterian Church of Ogden have pulled together in an effort to help local homeless stay warm as the winter cold takes hold.
As part of its continuing commitment to serve the Ogden area homeless population, the church is conducting a “Scarf Bomb for the Unsheltered.”
“I saw an article in the Washington Post about a town somewhere back East that had done the scarf bomb,” said Sheryl Brown, First Presbyterian’s mission team lead. “We’re pretty opportunistic. When something comes up, we often seize it …. So I took it to the team, and they said ‘yeah.’ Then I took it to the congregation, and you’ve seen what happened.”
What happened was more than 170 scarves were knitted or crocheted by members, sometimes during church services. A multitude of hats and mittens were also made. All of those items will eventually find their way into the hands of those facing the prospect of a winter without permanent shelter.
Brown said members of various ages, from young children to seniors, have participated in the effort. Moreover, members often used their own materials or purchased and donated materials for others to use.
Scarves and other clothing items that were produced have or will be donated to organizations like the Homeless Veterans Fellowship, Seager Memorial Clinic, Lantern House, Youth Futures and Family Promise of Ogden.
Several of the scarves remain on display in the church sanctuary, where they’ve been for the last several weeks. They’ll eventually find their way to the Weber County Library System’s main library at 2464 Jefferson Ave., where they’ll be available for the people who need them.
That’s the same location where Weber State University students will be doing scarf bombs of their own in the coming months. The church’s outreach team lead Mary Hargis said church members wanted to be part of this effort.
“We learned that the Weber State students were bombing all the trees and stuff behind, and we thought, ‘Well, let’s just work with them and help them out with our scarves as well,'” Hargis told the Standard-Examiner.
Through this and other outreach efforts, Hargis and other members of her congregation have come to appreciate that homelessness takes many forms and can affect a wide array of people, she said.
“You may think you don’t have homelessness, but you don’t know what’s going on in your neighbor’s house,” Hargis said. “You don’t know how close they are to having their car repossessed or having to go out because they don’t have the money for rent. You just don’t know that.”
That said, she has also been impressed by the continuing and coordinated efforts of the many Ogden area organizations doing their part to improve the lives of those dealing with homelessness. She hopes to see more of the same moving forward.
“Our feeling is that you just have to be a good neighbor. You just have to be on the lookout. You have to do what you can with what you have, when you can,” Hargis said. “We don’t expect to go out and cure mental illness or drug addiction or find a house for everybody. But we can, certainly, be open to what’s going on and willing to help where we can.”
