Tree + Trash + Christmas Craftiness = TreeCycle!
TreeCycle is a new program this year at Fletcher Memorial Library in conjunction with the Ludlow Transfer Station. The project was started by local artists Marissa Stinson, Laurie Marechaux, and Brian Jewett to promote recycling and encourage residents to look more closely at what they throw out. After Thanksgiving, a live tree will be placed inside the library entrance and the entire town is invited and encouraged to make and contribute ornaments and decorations crafted from recycled materials.
There will be programs to make ornaments with the local schools, the children’s department at the library, the senior center and possibly other groups. Anyone can create ornaments for the tree and bring them to the library. We’re hoping the entire community will join in the fun. After Christmas, until New Years day, the ornaments will be for sale with the proceeds going to children’s programming at the library. In keeping with the green theme, the tree will then be cut up and recycled itself for ski trail markers on the mountain.
As Laurie points out, "Why buy more junk for your tree, when you can decorate your tree with junk!" Recycled materials could include almost anything clean and colorful so start saving now! Plastic bottle caps come in a wide range of colors and sizes and can be stacked or beaded for ornaments or strung like popcorn for garlands. Magazine pages can be cut into narrow triangles and rolled to create beads. Wine corks make great bodies for building little people. White milk jugs can be cut into nice snow people and snowflake shapes. Old clothes can make nice little coaster sized quilt blocks. The possibilities really are endless!
Brian says he got the idea from an oddball Christmas tree at a company he used to work for. “The guys working in the darkroom department were all a little off beat and one of them brought in this mangled Charlie Brown tree that had been cannibalized for wreaths. They started hanging scraps of film, tools, or anything colorful they could find on it. Soon the entire company was bringing in colorful detritus to hang on the tree. It was great, and turned into everyone’s favorite tree. Thirty-some years later, I can still see it.”
For more information, contact Brian Jewett @ 802-228-8001 or info@BrianJewett.com
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