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Ministries of Project Happiness is an organization that gives bandanas and do-rags to cancer patients and people experiencing homelessness.

It began about 10 years ago in Colorado, said Richard Miller, who founded and operates the organization with his wife, Jane. Bandanas, he explained, are very valuable to people who are living without shelter. They can use them to protect their heads from the sun, soak them in water to cool off and use them for warmth when the weather is cold.

Miller said they began Ministries of Project Happiness by buying bandanas from Dollar Tree and handing them out to homeless shelters and people they met in large cities.

He said while it was fairly inexpensive to buy two bandanas in a pack for a dollar, it began to add up quickly as he and his wife gave out around 75 a week.

He said they saw an opportunity to remedy this when they learned that hotels regularly threw away large amounts of bedsheets. At the time, they were already giving out flat sheets to homeless people. However, the fitted sheets were more difficult to find use for, and many ended up in a landfill. Miller decided to give these hotel sheets new life by using them to sew bandanas. The Millers began making do-rags as well once they saw they were a bit sturdier than a bandana.

Moving to Minnesota prompted a change in the organization, Miller said, as the population of homeless people in Albert Lea was significantly lower than in big cities. They shifted their demographic so they were also donating bandanas and do-rags to cancer patients. The Millers have donated bandanas and do-rags to cancer centers in Albert Lea, Austin, Rochester and other cities.

Although using discarded hotel sheets largely meets the need for materials for bandanas and do-rags, funds are still needed to pay for things like thread, dye and resealable baggies, which all bandanas come in. Additionally, shipping the bandanas and do-rags to different cities also comes with a cost.

Hoping to offset some of the expenses, Miller said a friend offered to sell used items on Facebook for the organization. It sounded like a good idea, he said, and he reached out to his Facebook followers and encouraged them to bring used items to his house.

He had no idea that people would be so eager to give him donations.

“It just never quit coming in,” he said.

He switched from selling only online to running a thrift store in his home. Eventually, due to city regulations, he needed to find a different space to sell donations in.

For about two years he rented a store in Skyline Plaza.

Renting a store came with additional financial responsibility as Miller had to pay rent to continue using it. He realized he would not be able to consistently provide the rent needed without using a sizable amount of his own income, and decided to find another place for the store.

That was when Steve Overgaard contacted Miller and offered Ministries of Project Happiness one of his buildings at no cost, and Miller accepted.

The new building had been vacant for over 13 years and needed a lot of work. For six months, the Millers renovated the building by removing mildew from the walls, painting and more. They opened their new thrift store to the public around Christmas.

Building renovations are ongoing, Miller said. When the store is fully completed, it will have separate rooms for men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, a media room with movies, CDs, cassette tapes, vinyl records and books, and a room dedicated to housewares.

An artist by trade, Miller plans to paint murals on the walls to add another creative touch to the space. He would like to paint the characters Dick and Jane from the classic children’s books in the youth clothing room. It fits, he said, as his name is Richard and his wife’s name is Jane.

Miller said he noticed another need for their bandanas and do-rags when he learned about the recent wildfires in Los Angeles. He said, being from southeast Texas, he was familiar with wildfires that usually started in the swamps near his home. He recognized bandanas can be especially useful during fires because they can help protect people from breathing in smoke.

“When I saw the fires were going on in Los Angeles, I was like, ‘We need to get bandanas out there because they’re going to need them for masks,’ so we started calling and contacting them then, and started shipping them out there,” Miller said. He sent a box of 600 to a homeless shelter in Los Angeles and continued to donate more as the need grew.

“We’re going to continue doing that until at least most of their needs are met,” he said, noting that these shelters are seeing an overwhelming number of people displaced because of the fires, many of whom have never experienced homelessness before.

As of publication, the Millers have given about 110,000 bandanas and do-rags to cancer patients and homeless people across the country. They have donated in 48 states.

“It’s grown and grown and grown,” Miller said. He added people are always grateful for the bandanas and do-rags.

“We didn’t ever have any go, ‘No, we don’t need them.’ We always got, ‘Yeah, I’ll take those,” he said. He would like to continue the work of Ministries of Project Happiness as long as he can.

“That’s what we’re all about, is reaching the homeless as best we can with as much help as we can provide for them. And it’s not much, … but we do what we can, and we’ve enjoyed doing it, and we don’t ever want to have to stop.”

The Ministries of Project Happiness thrift store is at 1521 E. Hawthorne St. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.