Introducing October 4th Presenter, Marge Mendel

Marge Mendel is an award winning author who has been doing crafts for the fun of it since she was a little girl making baskets by weaving together strips of paper. She has a Master’s Degree in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling and an MFA in Creative Writing. For many years she worked in programs that provided services for an adult schizophrenic population or adults with mental retardation. She began to write seriously more than 10 years ago when she authored a food column in a local Bronx Newspaper. Her short stories have appeared in numerous on line and print publications. This year one of her stories appeared in an anthology of women mystery writers, “Murder, New York Style”. She has just completed the first draft of a novel set in Vietnam on the eve of WW II.

Marge learned to sew when she was eleven years old and from that time on she made most of her own clothing. When she graduated from high school she worked as a power sewing machine operator for more than 5 years and during that time she learned to make just about everything that could be produced on a sewing machine.

Pottery, calligraphy, and yummy chocolates are just a few of the creative efforts that Marge has gotten involved with. In the last couple of years she has become an avid digital photographer and downloads her shots on flickr.com.

You can read some of her stories and view her photographs on her website www.margaretmendel.net.

Over the years Marge has realized that being ecological means many things. It certainly is conserving water and being kind to the environment, but she believes it goes deeper than that. Sharing for her has now become the heart of what it means to be ecological. Share what you know. Share what you have in excess. And always share your creative energy with anyone who is interested.

Old Clothing Turns Into New Ideas

"Just because that old shirt you used to love is too threadbare to wear anymore doesn’t mean it has to end up in a landfill. According to the non-profit Institute for Local Self-Reliance, textiles make up about four percent of the weight and eight percent of the volume of all municipal solid waste in the U.S. "

If this is something you are concerned about you don't want to miss our next workshop with Marge Mendel. Many parents may struggle with their child's (or their own) overabundance of clothing. Unwanted presents you may feel guilty giving away, clothes that don't fit anymore or are too worn, or that shirt you just can't seem to let go of but never wear are all great reasons to recycle them. Whether it's handing them down to family and friends, donating them to a Goodwill, or using your crafty skills to make old clothes into something reusable, you're sending less to the landfill! So if you want to challenge your sewing skills with your children and at the same time teach them how to recycle their old clothes to help the earth, we should be seeing you on October 4th.

Interested in the percentage quote above? Read on...

September 6th Workshop Review

All the kids who attended our recent workshop really dug it. And that’s not hippie surfer talk, they literally ‘dug’ into the day’s lesson. Presenters Beatrice and Liza educated the families on the smallest, but most important creatures in composting – tiny earthworms called Red Wrigglers.

After listening to a short reading on earth worms, each kid got a clump of composted material and got to work removing the tiny wrigglers from their hiding places. With the worms safely removed and placed in a hosting bin, each child then used a small planter – made from household recyclables – to deposit a pumpkin seed in the rich composted matter.

Many parents took home handouts on composting and a few even took home a some worms. Which means that at the core of many Green Apple homes, you might find a few worms… And that’s a good thing!

See our pictures and video below:


(Workshop presenters Beatrice and Liza)