A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Party!

When my eldest son Ethan began attending school, I quickly realized that I was going to be bringing a lot of food to his classroom over the next seven years—birthdays, holiday celebrations, school BBQs . . . I also noticed that every party usually meant a whole slew of disposable party goods—expensive to parents and costly to the environment.

I then began putting together a prototype "kit" of reusable dishes, cups and silverware. I donated the kit to my son's third grade classroom, and I started thinking: imagine all of the parties in one classroom, multiplied by all the classrooms on one campus, multiplied by all of the schools in the country. That's a lot of trash!

Along came the Green Effect™ contest, sponsored by National Geographic and Sunchips®. They invited people to submit their little eco-ideas that held potential for great change. I wrote up the "Green Classroom Party Kit," pledging to work with a group of student leaders to make 100 kits: 20 for our school Julian Elementary and 80 more for 80 different public schools in San Diego county. The idea was chosen as one of five winners, from 2500 original submissions.

Two exciting things happened next! One, I did further research and discovered there are eco-friendly products that I could use for the party kits. Two, more requests for kits came in from schools, civic groups, and families beyond the free kits provided by the Green Effect grant. All of this interest launched my green home business—Green Party Kits.