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'Ugly Quilters' sew sleeping bags for the homeless

They call themselves the 'ugly quilters,' but their mission is anything but.

LAKE WINOLA, Pa. — Every Wednesday, the sound of a sewing machine fills this room inside Lake Winola United Methodist Church.

More often than not, Mary Hosey from Swoyersville is the one threading the needle.

"To help the homeless They need it. They're cold and lonely, and it makes them feel that somebody cares."

Mary's job is just one part of the process that goes into making one of these quilts for the homeless in our area.

"The homeless really need it. A lot of them are veterans, and my son is a veteran. He has a Purple Heart. And he knows a lot of the veterans who are homeless. So he takes care of them, and so do I."

"We call ourselves the Ugly Quilters. Because all of the material that we use has been donated," said Jan Herr from Scranton.

The volunteers gather here once a week to sew. Once they're done, the quilts go directly to homeless shelters in Scranton.

"I met a man down there at the Intervention Center, and I said to him, 'What are you doing here?' And he said, 'I had a really good job.' He was around 55, and a lot of companies just let you go when you're that age. And he said, 'So I lost it, I lost my home, I lost my car, and here I am,'" recalled Herr.

"We can't cure homelessness. The thing that we can do is sew knots and make blankets to help them have at least a warm night's sleep,'" said Robin Fillmore, the pastor at Lake Winola United Methodist Church.

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