St Joseph’s School students are helping the environment and children less fortunate than themselves by turning bottle tops in to prosthetic hands.
Assistant to the principal and environment program coordinator Trish Garrad said students had heartily embraced the Lids for Kids program.
“We were looking for some different recycling type projects that were available and we came across this on the internet,” Trish said.
“We found the Envision Hands project where we can collect plastic lids and they can be turned into artificial hands for kids using a 3D printer.
“So I thought ‘wow, what a great idea’ that we can actually use our lids to create artificial hands for kids that don’t have any.”
She said the response from the entire school community had been fantastic with a bucket full of lids collected already this term.
Lids are being collected from lunch time breaks and coming from home.
“We’ve been really surprised by the number of people that have been bringing in lots of lids, so it’s been really good.”
St Joseph's students collect bottle lids for cause
Grade five student Laylah Jackson said she was proud to be part of the environment program.
“We basically bring in all the plastic lids from home or from anything at school and we give that to a lady in Bundaberg who helps make them into hands for children,” Laylah said.
“There are kids out there that aren’t as fortunate as us to have everything so if we can do two things at once – so recycle and give to those that are less fortunate – it stands for everything the school stands for and it just helps people in general.”
Grade six student Laura Stack said she had been in St Joseph’s environment program for two years.
“I thought it was a really good cause that it goes towards,” Laura said.
“We have a bucket on the kitchen table sometimes and I kinda just tell mum and dad to give them to me.
“Because children that are born without hands, it makes life a lot harder and if they had things like that it would make everything, they do a lot easier for them.
“Things we do they can’t do easily without hands.
“It makes me feel really good because I know I’m doing something to support someone else.”
And it’s not just plastic lids in the children’s firing line.
“One of the children in the group found out about the ring pulls and how they can be recycled because they’re aluminium,” Trish said.
“Then they get the money for that that gets sent away and helps to build wheelchairs for children in third world countries.
“So we’ve decided to collect them as well.”
Kiarah Boyle, in grade five, was proud to admit she was the student who introducing ring pull recycling.
“My grandparents have been collecting them for quite a while, so I thought I’d do it as well,” Kiarah said.
“So we take the ring pulls to a place and they get money from it and they make wheelchairs from the money.
“Because when we came up with the idea of the Envision Hands, the wheelchairs would have been something else to help people with.
“So we have less plastic and metal out in the ocean.”
Trish said anyone in the community was welcome to join in on their recycling efforts.
“If they want to collect ring pulls and plastic lids bring them in to St Joseph’s, we’d love to have them.”
She said the environment program was becoming so popular that students were electing to join in.
“It helps the children to learn about how they can make a difference and how their actions impact on the environment.
“That everything that they can do can have an impact whether its negative or positive.
“So, we try to make positive changes.”
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