Franciscan Friends Make Traveling Bags for Pilgrims

November 22, 2001. Lowell, Michigan

A group of senior volunteers known as Franciscan Friends took on a time-consuming project in support of the November Franciscan tri-community pilgrimage to Germany. Several months ago they started making 36 hand-woven travel bags for the group going on the pilgrimage. Norma Spicer wove the bags on a loom at the Franciscan Life Process Center. Other members of Franciscan Friends and several Sisters braided handles and sewed the pieces together.

Franciscan Friends are 15 in number, ranging in age from mid-life to 92 years. They volunteer at the Franciscan Life Process Center every Friday morning and can be found taking on all kinds of projects to help support the center and its mission. The bag project was so successful that the group is considering making bags and rugs as a fundraising project.