Albert Lea couple turn old hotel sheets into bandanas for cancer patients

Richard and Jane Miller have held an eclectic mix of occupations. Together, they've run a homeless ministry and sold homemade chocolates.

They currently run a thrift store in Albert Lea, Minn., where they live. She sells teddy bears she makes from secondhand fur coats. He has been an assistant pastor, a call-center operator, a street-performing clown, a newspaper delivery man and purveyor of homemade chili powder that many find too spicy — "People might buy it once but they don't buy it a second time," Richard said, chuckling.

These days, they spend most of their time turning thousands of discarded hotel sheets — fabric that would otherwise go into landfills — into headwear for homeless people and cancer patients.

They call it Ministries of Project Happiness. Jane cuts and sews do-rags and bandanas. Richard contacts homeless shelters and cancer centers to see who could use the products — thousands of people, it turns out.

Richard provided details about how the operation works.

Q: Where did you and Jane get the idea to make do-rags and bandanas, and how did you decide to use discarded hotel sheets?

A: We had a homeless ministry in Pueblo, Colo. A number of the guys with thin hair complained they were getting sunburns regularly, which is understandable in Colorado with its 300 days of sunshine. We started buying bandanas at the Dollar Tree. They were only two for a dollar, but when you're supplying 75 a week, that runs into a little bit of money. We were funding the ministry with donations. What was not donated I raised by doing street performing.

One of our neighbors was a biker who wore a do-rag all the time. He passed away of cancer. We asked for one of the do-rags. My wife made a pattern basically just by looking at it and we made our first do-rags.

Q: What's the process for turning a sheet into a do-rag or bandana, once you have the sheet?

A: Jane cuts out six pieces: two sides, one top, a headband and two ties from her pattern for do-rags. Bandanas she marks, tears them into squares and hems the squares. One queen-size sheet can make 15 to 20 bandanas.

Q: How many hotels in the United States throw out how many sheets a year?

A: There are 5 million hotel rooms in the country. Probably 90 to 99% throw out most of the sheets they use. They throw out about one set of sheets a month per room, which would come to nine or 10 million sheets a month.

A: We had somebody helping us out with our homeless ministry, and one day she said, "Oh, my sister's cancer group would love these!"

We moved to Albert Lea in 2013, and the homeless situation here is not like it is in a big city. So there's not a lot of work for somebody running a homeless ministry here. We were sitting around trying to think what we were going to do for the community.

We started making do-rags for cancer centers here in Albert Lea and in Rochester and Austin. We took a trip to California and called cancer centers and homeless shelters along the route. It kind of grew from there.

Q: Where all have you sent headwear?

A: Jane has now made over 77,000 bandanas and do-rags that we've either shipped or hand-delivered to places from Key West, Fla., to Portland, Maine, to Seattle, Wash., San Diego, Calif., and all over between. We're sending out about three boxes of 300 bandanas and 36 do-rags each week. I usually look up homeless shelters or cancer centers online, then call and ask if they can use them. One cancer center contacts me pretty regularly, asking, "Can we have more, please?"

A: Jane sews about 18 hours a day. If things are working well she can get one done probably in about 20 minutes. Bandanas just need hemming the edges, so those only take 10 to 15 minutes.

I work fewer hours. I dye the sheets, using Rit dye in a 50-gallon bucket. I usually make two to three batches in the same dye, so it gets lighter and lighter as it goes along. The red goes from dark red to lighter pink. The light pink goes really well for women with breast cancer. I also package them, raise the money to ship them and contact Ronald McDonald houses, cancer centers, Make a Wish Foundation locations and Veterans Administration hospitals.

Q: That's a lot of hours, and the cost of all that shipping must add up. How can people help?