01/29/2026
💜💛💚A fantastic article about a great service to the community featuring an awesome organization based in D'Iberville and St. Martin!
Civitans hope to impact special education classrooms using unwanted parade beads
💜💛💚CARNIVAL SEASON
ST. MARTIN, Miss. — Mardi Gras is just four weeks from today, which means colorful beads will be flying from floats and worn briefly by parade-goers as Carnival Season rolls through Fat Tuesday, February 17.
Unfortunately, many parade beads get left-behind along parade routes. This nuisance of litter can be quite the task each year for members of the 'krewe' of cleanup in cities and counties that host these parades.
So how can you be of help? A month-long service project in Coastal Mississippi starts today thanks to the North Bay Civitan Club of D'Iberville & St. Martin's 5th Annual Beads for Special Needs.
The Civitan club is once again accepting unwanted parade beads as part of an impactful service project that not only is environmentally friendly but also benefits special education teachers and their students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
"We started this project many years ago while helping another similar bead recycling program that helped employ adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities," said Club President Keith Wilson.
"When that program dissolved, [our] Civitan club wanted to somehow continue recycling parade beads and use them in a manner that would have an impact on the education and future employment of individuals with special needs."
In 2025, the club cleared nearly 2,500 pounds of beads that went to special education teachers at St. Martin High School in the Jackson County School District and Long Beach High School over in Harrison County.
The project falls under the Civitan International impact area of "Education & Employment of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities", says Wilson.
The goal, he says, is always to provide special education teachers from local high schools with enough beads that will allow each to provide their students with lessons involving critical life-skills from marketing and sales to organization and accounting.
Last August, the North Bay Civitans were recognized with a 2023-2024 First Place award for this impact area service project during the 2025 Civitan International convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Right now, the Civitan club is waiting to hear back on a grant application through the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which would help them grow this project by purchasing larger rolling collection bins in a purple-gold-green design to make this project more noticeable.
Donations of parade beads will be accepted at any of the listed partner drop-off sites through Friday, February 20.
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BEADS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS
DROP-OFF SITES:
💜💛💚A Latte Friends, Automall Parkway, D'Iberville
💜💛💚Jerry Lawrence Memorial Library, Automall Parkway, D'Iberville
💜💛💚St. Martin Public Library, LeMoyne Boulevard, St. Martin
💜💛💚Gulf Coast Research Laboratory Gunter Library, East Beach, Ocean Springs
💜💛💚Coastal Mississippi Mardi Gras Museum, Howard Avenue, Biloxi
💜💛💚d'Iberville High School, Lamey Bridge Road, D'Iberville
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On Saturday, February 21, Civitans and student volunteers from D'Iberville High School Key Club will sift through the beads outside St. Martin Public Library to inspect for cleanliness and any profanity before dividing the collection between educators who signup to receive a portion of the beads.
For more information, email [email protected].
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KEITH WILSON
Streetcar PR •
(Flyer courtesy of North Bay Civitan Club.)
Editor's Note: Keith Wilson serves as a board member for North Bay Civitan Club.
©️2026, Keith Wilson/STREETCAR PR.
