Keeping Close Buy

Going green

By Deidre Fulton | October 27, 2010

Masey Kaplan's children used to bring home fundraising catalogs — the ones from which part of the proceeds go to the school — from their Portland school, full of wrapping paper and plastic toys and goods "from god knows where." Kaplan, a graphic designer who lives in Portland, was torn.

"I thought, I want to support his school, but don't really want any of this stuff," she recalls. Rather than buy crap or abashedly hawk those wares to relatives and co-workers, Kaplan often found herself simply writing a check to the school as a donation. But at the same time, she was scheming: "Maine is just rich with beautiful things — delicious, high quality, well-designed things that people want. Why not put them all together and raise money for schools and help the local economy at the same time?"

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