Southwick kids clean up with creative recycling project

Youngsters from The Salvation Army in Southwick didn’t ‘waste’ any time in getting creative to learn about the importance of recycling for Global Recycling Day last month. 

Austin House Family Centre’s Kids Alive After School Club, which supports children with activities and food every Tuesday, asked children to bring in items they would normally bin to transform them into something new. 

The kids brought in milk bottles, cereal boxes, pringle pots, yoghurt pots and much more then used a range of materials like paints, feathers, and stickers to turn them into new creations. 

The aim of the fun sessions was to raise awareness of the importance of ‘Caring for Creation’, one of The Salvation Army’s key missions, by highlighting reusing and recycling. 

Janine Wharton, Children and Family Worker at Austin House, said: “In our Kids Alive After School Club, we always try to follow a theme either from the educational celebration events or special awareness days. 

“On Global Recycling Day, in our Arts and Crafts group we decided to make some amazing inventions by bringing in our own recycled materials from home. We had an abundance of stuff and the kids had a lot of fun painting and sticking. One made a recreation of his house with the addition of a swimming pool, another made a rocket and another ingenious young person made an ice-cream cone.

“This isn’t the first time we have done this, so the children’s creations are getting better every time, they love it!  We agreed that after we had finished with our creations, we would then recycle them once more.  

“It’s important that the kids get to have fun in our afterschool club but it’s also helping raise awareness of things like recycling and how important that is for helping to protect our planet.” 

Global Recycling Day was created in 2018 to help recognise, and celebrate, the importance recycling plays in preserving resources and securing the future of our planet.

Care for Creation is one of The Salvation Army’s mission priorities, the church and charity is committed to helping change attitudes, resulting in a more responsible use of our planet.

Austin House Family Centre runs a number of activities to support children and their families including the weekly afterschool club and with the support of Sunderland City Council’s Together for Children and community partnership SARA (Southwick Altogether Raising Aspirations), camps throughout school holidays, which gives new experiences to children which they may not otherwise get.