SLT family to use CG Craft Fair as a learning experience

Jim and Janet Anderson want to teach their daughters people skills, so they're rolling out the welcome mat. The Anderson family will be selling homemade door mats at the Coast Guard Craft Show, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Grand Haven's Central Park. "My objective is to get my kids around people,' Jim said. "It's like having a lemonade stand with a pretty cool product.'

Marie Havenga

Northwest Ottawa County

Aug 4, 2011

The Spring Lake Township family’s invention is a repurposed mat that sports a Coast Guard theme. Purchasers can custom color the designs to match their décor.

The welcome mat idea rolled out when the company Jim works for threw out a 1,200-foot roll of rubber used to make grocery store checkout and treadmill belts.

“(The roll) wasn’t quite up to the right specs,” said Jim of the Grand Rapids-based Mol Belting Co. “They were going to throw it in the trash. It seemed criminal to throw it in the garbage, so I told them to throw it in my trailer instead and I’d figure out something to do with it.”

Jim and his daughters — Taylor, 13, and Carly, 10 — decided to cut the material into welcome mats. Through a heat-sinking foil process, Jim added a lighthouse, waves and words to the black rubber remnants.

The Andersons will join more than 160 artists at the 49th annual arts and crafts show. Vendors from as far away as Florida, California and Texas will be at this year’s show, organizer Courtney Olson said.

To read more of this story, see today’s print or e-edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.