Beads are Melvin Nilges' "seeds", seeds he strings on a vine, hoping to sprout.

"There's 59 beads," said Melvin. "It gives me great satisfaction to know where they're going."

Over the years, the retired hardware store employee and his old my trusty pliers has threaded more than 70,000 beads.

"I've never had to cut one apart," said Melvin.

And he placed them in the hands of Missouri prisoners.

"It's not a piece of jewelry," said Melvin. It's not a necklace, but something Nelvin still keeps close to his heart.

"We've had them cry, they're so happy to get one."

"Love one another as I loved you, so that's what we do. And we tell them that we love them," said Melvin.

A rosary. Over the last six years, the Wellsville man has made 1,200 prayer rosaries, mostly for Missouri prisoners - that's 1,200 hours stringing beads in his living room.

"I thought, my goodness. What you know. What could they have done. You know. How come they're here," thought Margaret Nilges, prison volunteer.

Every Saturday night, he and his wife travel to the Vandalia prison to meet with women who've fallen off the vine.

"We see some very sad things in there."

Even when his hands became unsteady, and the prison no longer allowed the rosaries inside, Melvin kept sowing his seeds.

"It's for the love of God that I do it. If I can bring one person to God then I've done my job."

These days, this volunteer mails the finished rosaries to newly released prisoners.

"This is my one-thousandth rosary," said Melvin. 

Along with a pamphlet on how to pray.

"Someone has to do something for those people. They might have done wrong, but they're still human beings," said Melvin.

Still worth the time Melvin takes carefully planting his seeds in the hands of people in hopes that someday, they too can grow.

While most of them go to prisoners, Melvin is giving his one-thousandth rosary to Bishop John Gaydos.