Last year, the chilly months of winter prompted three teachers to take a spring break vacation to Puerto Rico. Their tropical getaway lead to an unexpected jewelry business.

On the trip to Aguada, Puerto Rico, the families of business class instructor Chad Jettner, and teachers James Richardson and Melissa Richardson met a man named Luis.

“Mrs. Jettner is hugging this guy on the beach the first day and I’m literally looking down thinking what is she doing,” James Richardson said on reflection of the first time he met Luis.

Luis, a Puerto Rico native, befriended the group after noticing them collect sea glass on the beach. He introduced them to a prime location to find more.

“He turned us on to a part of the beach that was probably a mile and half away that had a ton of sea glass,” Melissa Richardson said. “We went down there and we found this little honey hole.”

Inspired by the glass that Luis had showed them, the teachers came home to and started crafting with it.

“When our girls were little, we would go downtown to Creative Fringe to make jewelry,” Melissa Richardson said. “So when we were finding all this sea glass we thought, ‘Let’s do something with this.’ So we came back and we just did it.”

The process of making the sea glass into jewelry took some practice.

“Mr. Jettner and Mr. Richardson did a lot of research on trying to figure out how to drill the holes and make that work and Mrs. Jettner figured out the artistic side to them,” Melissa Richardson said, “It’s been great to do it with our families and it’s something that we enjoy.”

The group started bringing the jewelry to the Muskegon Farmers Market, where it was well received.

“Thirty to forty percent of customers come back. Sometimes every week,” Jettner said. “Credit to the Muskegon Farmer’s Market. It’s where we got our start.”

What started as a hobby turned into an idea to market the jewelry under the name Glassroots.

“It turned into something a whole lot bigger than we thought,” James Richardson said.

Beyond making jewelry from sea glass, the group also upcycles old glass bottles. Mugs Party Store allows the group to come and take their recyclable bottles. This way, the store doesn’t have to pay for recycling and Glassroots gets the materials they need.

Mugs is not the only location the group gets glass bottles from.

“I go to the Ottawa county recycling center twice a week,” James Richardson said. “I’m not saving the world. I’m just doing my piece and we are doing our part.”

Glassroots is not only doing its part in keeping bottles out of landfills, but it is also providing an example for Jettner’s students.

“When I can bring in real world examples of marketing or entrepreneurship, I do,” Jettner said.

He has started many businesses, ranging from deli shops to coffee shops, but they became too stressful with a full-time teaching job.

“You have overhead, rent, utilities and with [Glassroots], there is really no overhead,” Jettner said.

Besides the Glassroots website and Instagram, marketing occurs from past customers too.

“It’s through a lot of word of mouth,” Jettner said, “Someone sees a picture on instagram and heads to the farmer’s market because they know we will be there.”

The current goal of Glassroots is to stay low-key.

“Because we are teachers and that is our passion and our commitment — that and our families — we just want to make sure that our business stays fun. When it gets to be work, then we will reevaluate,”  Melissa Richardson said.