Take a closer look at those red-white-and-blue bags at the Colorado Historical Society’s gift shops at its Denver headquarters and at the Byers-Evans House.
Look familiar? They should. Downtown Denver was blanketed with similarly colored banners proclaiming the presence last summer of the Democratic National Convention.
Now, the historical society has contracted with Mission Wear, a nonprofit organization that hires disadvantaged women restoring their lives, to make bags out of the convention banners and retired historical society exhibit banners. The result: eye-catching graphics and genuine collector’s items commemorating the historic convention that nominated now-president-elect Barack Obama.
Mission Wear has been around for several years, coaching a handful of women — former convicts, former prostitutes and others who’ve known hard times — to sew functional bags.
“The idea is to just have women working side by side, talking about life and learning to sew together, and making cool stuff that we all think is fun,” said Mission Wear founder Beth McWhirter.
The oldest employee is 57. The youngest is about 30.
Recently, Mission Wear began branching from its familiar, lined coffee-sack bags to sew grocery bags made from colorful advertising banners and coffee cozies cut from discarded sweaters. A couple people look askance at the cozies. Clothes for coffee cups?
But it’s steady work in a warm, well-lit basement room of a Capitol Hill building. Earlier this month, the six employees were hard at work, wrangling the slippery convention banners into sturdy bags that were as colorful inside as out.
Mission Wear also sells its bags at other outlets, including Whole Foods and Marczyk Fine Foods. The Mission Wear bags are pricier than the flimsier recycled bags that sell for $1 to $4, but the customers willing to fork out $15 or more say they’re happy with them, said owner Pete Marczyk.
“There’s nothing standard about them,” said Rebecca Laurie, public relations director at the Colorado Historical Society, which sells the bags at its Neusteter Museum store.
“I already bought one for my mom, and I’m buying one for myself as soon as I see the right one for me, because they’re all different.”
McWhirter says the bags’ price is necessary to pay her staff a wage appealing enough to stick with their renewed lives. Some women are experienced at sewing, but others feel some trepidation about making products so substantial.
“They’re not designer bags, but they’re really cool,” McWhirter said. “When one of the women is anxious, I tell her, ‘Don’t stress about it. It’s just a grocery bag.’ ”
Claire Martin
