Make Your Own Bag Contest Winners Named

Award winning reusable bag by Kathy Cole. Contest winners will be on display in the windows at 614 N. Bullard through February 14th. (Courtesy photo)

(Silver City, NM, 26 January 2015)

A contest was recently held for the best homemade reusable shopping bags. The Town of Silver City Office of Sustainability organized the contest to help promote the new town ordinance eliminating single use plastic bags from retail stores. Reusable bags that can be taken to the store with you provide greater benefits than relying on stores to provide paper or heavy-weight plastic bags.

The judges for the contest were Judy Billings of Aunt Judy's attic, Diana Leyba of L&I Arts, and Margaret Hadderman from Single Socks. The Silver City Food Co-op, Silver City Museum, WalMart and Domino's Pizza sponsored the project by providing prizes for the contest winners.

The bags were judged based on their artistic merit, their functionality and their use of recycled materials. The best bag overall and most artistic was titled "Broken Hearts Bag" by Kathy Cole of Silver City, made from a repurposed quilt of new and scrap all-cotton materials. A bag made by Sandy Williamson tied with Cole's for most functional. A bag made out of a old shirt by Jacklynn Rodriguez won for the best use of recycled materials. Diane LaFrance, Susan Lynch, Judy Wuthrich, Grady Littleton and Bex Sasich also had award-winning entries.

The bags will be on display in the windows of the blue building the Food Co-op is renting at 614 N. Bullard until Feb 14th. Even though the contest is over you can still make your own bag and impress the people at the checkout counter.