A Unique Keepsake

A year ago, Christina Labetti asked her friend to humor her and make her bead.

They aren’t laughing anymore.

Labetti and her friend, Joy Burlew a jeweler, started making beads for their children’s high schools, a keepsake for their children instead of a school ring. The bead could go on a necklace or bracelet.

“Everybody wants a trinket to say this is where I went,” explained Labetti, who has four children–a sophomore, an eighth-grader, a sixth-grader and a third-grader.

The idea has taken off for the friends.

“It’s taken a year to design and tweak and change until we were happy with it,” said Labetti. “It’s simple and clean.”

They have trademarked the beads and started a business, offering schools and other organizations the opportunity to customize beads and sell them as a fundraiser. Beads are also available for businesses to purchase.

They have contracted with schools, cheerleaders. For sports teams, Labetti said, the beads can be customized each year.

“This is bigger than we ever thought,” she said.

The idea, Labetti said, was to offer a class of bead for each graduating class at MHS and to use the sale as a fundraiser for Project Graduation. There is also a school bead.

The bead, which sells for $49.95 is 4 ounces of silver, double-sided, antiqued with an “M” in relief. The bead on a sterling silver chain can be purchased for $69.95. As a fundraiser, organizations make $5.95 on just the bead and $10.95 on the bead and chain. Since the beads are made in New York, there’s about a three-week turnaround on orders.

“I’m excited,” said Labetti about the project. “I made these with my kids in mind. We wanted to give back. Hopefully it accomplishes that.”

To order a bead, or for more information, email schoolbeadfundraisers@gmail.com