STARC is in the people-helping business, with a serious side hustle that peaks this time of year.
“We are very well known in the community,” laughs STARC Executive Director Mark Baham. “Everyone wants to come for us for our beads, which helps support our missions.”
The STARC side hustle is recycling beads, specifically Mardi Gras beads, trinkets, stuffed animals. You know, the ones you have in bags all over your house or maybe in your attic. STARC has a bead recycling program that turns last year’s throws into this year’s throws.
They’ve been in the bead business for more than 30 years. Before Louisiana was recycling a lot of things, it was recycling beads.
“I don’t know how we could ever quantify (how many),” Baham said. “But one thing that’s been good the last seven, eight years has been the ‘throwback’ floats that many parades have at the end where people can throw their beads back. They dump tons of beads.”
STARC has two big bins where old beads can be dropped off. One is outside the STARC Center at 40201 Hwy 190 East in Slidell; the other is at 1705 Viola Street in Mandeville. STARC also helps with ‘bead drives’ at local schools and organizations.
The bins are emptied every day. Heck, STARC will even come pick up your old beads if you call them (985) 641-0197 x310.
Once they are the property of STARC, the beads are untangled, sorted, cleaned and packaged by STARC workers who do the work in the so-called “Bead Shack.” The beads are then put in crawfish sacks and sold back to your favorite Mardi Gras Krewe ready to be thrown, grabbed and treasured again … at least for a little while.
The price for a sack is competitive — STARC isn’t the only bead recycler in town — and there’s always a demand. Some years, STARC has had to rent storage sheds just to hold all the beads before they could be processed.
“We never have a problem selling,” said Baham.
Work is usually done by members of the disabled community that STARC aims to service. It’s a win-win every way around. There’s work to be done, the pay is good and it helps fulfill STARC’s main mission of improving the lives of people with disabilities.
STARC works with more than 600 clients, providing a variety of services, including finding jobs and providing training. They give a break to families by providing home services, and STARC is in the process of completing their seventh community home that is staffed 24/7.
“The program allows our individuals to earn a paycheck,” Baham said. “We can always use beads.”