John from Borders Scrapstores gave us this update on how the funding from Charity Pot helped them.
We used the donation from Lush to keep our ‘Little Red Van’ on the road for another year. In partnership with Local Authority Childcare Teams the van takes our salvaged and recycled art and craft materials to outlying communities in South East Scotland. We’re a very rural area, with big distances and patchy public transport, so to save every little country school and playgroup, church and community group from having to drive to us, we go to them. This saves a huge number of journeys. One van trip can save ten or more groups from having to trek cross country for their supplies.
Sometimes we’ll visit each group, though more and more we set up shop in a church hall or community wing, and local people will come in, meet each other, swap ideas and generally have a sociable time as well as getting their art materials. Recently we were asked to visit a community centre in a difficult part of Edinburgh, and in an area of poor social facilities it was clear that giving people access to our eclectic mix of unusual materials was a big hit, and we plan to do more of the same.
So thanks to all the Lushies for helping us to spread the message – don’t waste it, re-use it!
