INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
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NONPROFIT<br />
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI<br />
Arc of Greater <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> controller Vance Levesque, second from right, takes a break from sorting beads with, from left, Terri Hingle, Randy Borne, Dawn Garfield and Jeff Regan.<br />
Arc of Greater <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong><br />
Key innovation: system for collecting and recycling<br />
Mardi Gras beads<br />
Biggest suppliers: area universities, high school and<br />
civic groups<br />
Where they’re based: <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong><br />
Top executive: Cliff Doescher, executive director<br />
Year introduced: 1953<br />
2007 figures: more than 30 tons of beads recycled;<br />
more than 50 tons projected for this year<br />
VANCE LEVESQUE, CONTROLLER of the Arc of<br />
Greater <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong>, has discovered something many<br />
<strong>New</strong> Orleanians have pondered over for years: a way to<br />
make boxed-up Mardi Gras beads resourceful.<br />
A “born and raised” <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> native, Levesque<br />
combined his involvement in the Sierra Club with his<br />
dedication to Arc of Greater <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> to make the art<br />
of collecting beads green.<br />
“I joined the Sierra Club in 1995, and I learned all about<br />
recycling and what it means to go green,” he said. “(It) was<br />
the place where I learned … how we need to be responsible<br />
for helping our communities be a better place to live.”<br />
For many years,the nonprofit Arc has been soliciting Mardi<br />
Gras beads to provide piecework opportunities for adults with<br />
disabilities,whose caregivers thought they were too disabled to<br />
enter the work force. The organization has since eliminated its<br />
piecework practice and, instead, employs people with intellectual<br />
disabilities within the organization’s overall work force.<br />
Levesque also has expanded Arc to area universities,<br />
including Tulane, the University of <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong>,<br />
Louisiana State University and Dillard University.<br />
“Tulane University has made a major effort into recycling,”<br />
he said, “and in May of 2008, they put recycling<br />
bins in all of the dorms and collected over 6,000 pounds<br />
of beads as students left for the summer.”<br />
AmeriCorps has also joined the effort by sending<br />
youth volunteers to help with recycling the past two summers,<br />
and a local Boy Scout has made recycling beads his<br />
Eagle Scout project.<br />
“Vance has been very active in the local chapter of the<br />
Sierra Club and has combined that interest — passion —<br />
with opportunities available at Arc to help us get started on<br />
a green path,” said executive director Cliff Doescher,<br />
adding that the recycled-bead project has inspired them to<br />
convert other operations, such as janitorial services and<br />
grounds and landscaping, to green processes.<br />
Arc also recycles newspapers, cell phones and ink jet<br />
cartridges. They are in the process of rebuilding their<br />
sustainable organic garden to grow herbs and vegetables<br />
for their Vintage Garden Kitchen, which has just begun<br />
to serve healthy soups to the community.•<br />
— Amy Ferrara Smith<br />
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> <strong>City</strong><strong>Business</strong> 43A