GALVESTON, Texas — A new program at a Galveston High School is bringing new life to an island treasure: Mardi Gras beads.
Every year, thousands of beads end up in the trash, your closet, or worse, the gutter. But high school students are now recycling those beads while gaining some skills themselves.
It’s a job that’s got a lot of color and a great cause.
Washing and repackaging used Mardi Gras beads is no easy ask, but students at Ball High School are clearly up to the task.
“We’re getting a lot of beads donated to us, so they’re taking the beads and we’re sorting them, like the specialty beads, and then beads by different colors and then we’re going to take them, put them together by the dozen and then we’re going to package them to sell," teacher Darren Muren said.
Muren said the idea was given to them by Mardi Gras Galveston.
“When the party’s over, we get to clean it up and so we see how much of that trash goes into the trash bins and then it goes into a landfill somewhere," President of Yaga's Entertainment Mike Dean said.
So instead, by the hands of the students, those beads get one more chance to fly.
“And it gives our guys a lot of really good skills that they can use hopefully after they graduate to get a job somewhere," Muren said.
The students are part of the school’s Life Skills class, which means they each face some sort of learning disability.
“There’s so many jobs where our students just need that extra help being able to count, being able to take something from one place and put it into another, and properly be able to package it. Things like that," Muren said.
It’s a program that combines purpose and preparation in a single course.
Those students have washed over 50,000 beads, and have already sold more than half of that. The profits go back into the Life Skills program.
You can donate beads at participating Galveston ISD schools, including Ball High School.
To buy beads, click here.