Recycled bottle art helps employ Petaluma youth

Teens sell ‘Vino Vases’ at farmer’s market, donate proceeds to nonprofit.|

Rarely is a drinking habit a good thing. Although, for three Petaluma High School students, it’s helped them create their own startup.

Thanks to a steady flow of empty wine bottles from their parents – something each of them enjoys pointing out – Taiyo Logan, Jacob Sullivan and Cole Yant were able to create Vino Vases. They mount empty bottles on cuts of stained wood so they can be hung up and store fresh flowers.

Their business venture isn’t just about making money, though. It’s about raising money – specifically for CareerPoint, a youth employment program offered by Petaluma People Services Center.

For the last month, Vino Vases has been at the Petaluma farmer’s market every Wednesday, promoting and selling their handmade crafts. All their profits are being donated to CareerPoint, and so far they’ve made about $500, selling each vase for $27.

The decision to support CareerPoint was an easy one, Sullivan said. The process started last year when they were searching for an avenue to start a business and give back to their community in one venture.

Since CareerPoint’s mission is to help disadvantaged young people complete their education or chart a path into the workforce, it lined up with their entrepreneurial inspiration.

“They help young people with jobs, and were in-sync with what we were doing at the time,” Sullivan, 16, said.

PPSC executive director Elece Hempel said she has been “amazed” by the initiative and ingenuity shown by the three students.

Accepting donations often requires heavy lifting from Hempel and her staff. But with this group, they did all the legwork on their own, identifying a program, securing a booth at the market and finding a lane to do it with regularity.

But maybe the most impressive aspect has been their own self-awareness through the entire process. They realized the privilege they had in their own daily lives and how they could use it to benefit others who were the same age but in a much more difficult situation.

CareerPoint targets out-of-school youth, ages 16 to 24, that might have dropped out or graduated high school but didn’t enroll in college. According to a PPSC press release, eligible participants can be offenders, homeless, runaways, foster youth, pregnant or parenting, disabled, or low income with limitations like deficiencies in English.

“To be able to recognize and bridge that gap is pretty amazing to me,” Hempel said. “The beauty of this program is it gives (young people) an opportunity to find a path toward additional education.”

To create an official Vino Vase requires a fair amount of work. The wood has to be cut and stained. The bottles have to be cleaned out. Mounting them has to be done with precision so the bottles are secure.

Sullivan estimated they’ve spent “a few hundred dollars” on constructing them so far.

Their plan is to continue their booth at the farmers market for the rest of the summer. After that, they’ll move sales online and through social media, @vinovases.

“They think it’s a really good thing that we’re doing,” Sullivan said of the response. “We’re a lot younger than a lot of people at the farmers market and they like that we’re donating to charity.”

(Contact News Editor Yousef Baig at yousef.baig@arguscourier.com or 776-8461, and on Twitter @YousefBaig.)

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