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They hung over the city in good weather and bad, during the cold rains and summer heat and now the street banners have been turned into handy shopping bags.
Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living washed the banners, cut them into patterns then sewed them into handbags taking care to ensure the bags displayed the designs that once decorated city streets.
The bags are so light and flexible they can be folded up, fixed with Velcro and tossed into a handbag.
“Rather than throwing them into the garbage, we wanted to keep them out of the landfill,” said Ineke Boekhorst, executive-director with the Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Area.
“It’s a great souvenir. What a story, these things have been hanging for three years downtown.”
Penny Lamarre and Nicole Locke, with Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living, sewed 109 of the bags.
The Downtown Maple Ridge Business Improvement Association partnered with community living in the project.
The BIA will be selling the Banner Bags for $10 on Earth Day, Saturday, April 18, in Memorial Peace Park. Proceeds will go to other green projects in the downtown.
Local seamstress Kelly Gallant helped with the project, while Meadows Cleaners helped with cleaning and pressing.
Karesa Curie, with VanSack, the agency owned by Ridge Meadows Association for Community Living that took on the project, said making the bags is a job-training opportunity for the workers.