Messenger bag proceeds to help aid restoration in the Gulf

It takes 3 to 5 hours to make each one, but the handful of volunteers from the Terrebonne Volunteers for Family and Community (TVFC) don’t have any problems producing approximately 25 prototype messenger bags made out of recycled boat sails. Each hand-sewn bag will help aid those affected by the BP oil disaster in the Gulf.

Margaret Jankowski, one of the organizers of the project, appropriately named it Sea Hope Partners, and it is an extension from her already up-and-running Sewing Machine Project.

“Sewing Machine Project takes donated sewing machines and gets them to women who need them after natural disasters, so machines were taken to New Orleans after Katrina,” Jankowski, a Madison, Wisc., native said. “So when the oil spill happened, I wanted to figure out how to help people affected by the oil spill, and sewing machines didn’t seem like the right answer.”

She teamed up with Houma’s Margaret Burlew to get the project off the ground. Burlew is a recently retired extension agent for the LSU Ag Center, who also has 32 years of sewing and clothing experience and three degrees in home economics.

“[Jankowski] and I started conversing with each other over the computer and she had decided that she would come down and look at the fishing area and see what this was all about,” Burlew said.

After Jankowski visited the Gulf Coast, Sea Hope Partners was created and the project began to take shape after recruiting a handful of TVFC seniors to help with production of the prototype bags.

“Margaret wanted the project to be done here in the Gulf Coast,” Burlew said.

“Basically, we are making messenger bags made out of recycled nautical materials,” Jankowski said. “Right now, we are making bags out of recycled sails, but we have a future design that uses nets. Initially, the money made from the bags will go to people along the coast who have lost their jobs.”

Local sailors from the Northshore and even some from the East Coast donated all the sails used to create the bags.

“It gives the sailors a nice way to volunteer their services to help the Gulf,” Burlew said.

In addition to the bags being for a good cause, they don’t lack in style, either. They all are sewn with the same design pattern, but each one is unique depending on the original design of the boat sail. All the bags have local area fishing charts in a clear pocket on the side.

For every sail donated, approximately six to eight bags can be made, according to Burlew.

“They’re turning out really cool,” Jankowski said, who also said she would be sending a few of the prototype bags to the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America” and “Oprah” to help spread the word about the project.

“We’re developing a site, seahopepartners.org, where people will be able to buy the bags,” Jankowski said, and added that the price isn’t confirmed yet, but will most likely be in the $100 range.

The two Margarets hope to train more people than just the 10 current volunteers to help expedite the bag production process, according to Burlew.

“We’d like to eventually create jobs out of this, but we have to figure out what’s most cost-effective and what will give us the best quality bag consistently because we’re charging a lot of the money for the bag,” Jankowski said.

The idea of recycled bags isn’t an original one, but Jankowski and Burlew hope the cause will draw buyers.

“We have a lot of competition because there are other bags out there made with recycled materials, but ours is special because all the profits will benefit the Gulf Coast, which is unusual,” Jankowski said.

“We want them to look really nice,” Burlew said. “We want people to be proud of them and be able to use them.”

Those interested can visit the project’s blog at: http://seahopeblog.wordpress.com for updates on the project.

Margaret Jankowski (at right), a Madison, Wisc. native and organizer of Sea Hope Partners, works with Donna Benda (left) and Rena Ladat on brightly-colored prototype messenger bags made out of recycled sails. JENNA FARMER