Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Decatur to donate old banners for tote bag project

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



Leave it to Decatur to recycle with style.
The city agreed this week to donate its old banners — advertising city events and parties — to a Colombian refugee recently resettled in DeKalb County.

Maria Cristina Giraldo Echeverria will then use her Wal-Mart sewing machine to turn the fabric into tote and messenger bags to be sold at a Decatur fair trade shop.

“It’s a very wonderful, very Decatur thing to do,” said Ann VanSlyke, owner of the Mingei World Arts store, where the bags will be sold.

The totes are for bookworms as much as earnest environmentalists. That’s because the banners-to-bags idea is the brainchild of Daren Wang, executive director of the Decatur Book Festival.

AJC STORY

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