I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This project has been sponsored by Capri Sun Big Pouch and Collective Bias. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
A couple of months ago, we posted about starting up a TerraCycle brigade to collect Capri Sun Big Pouch and other pouch drinks in our girls’ elementary school (see post here). There are a lot of needs in their school, but we really wanted to focus on helping out the P.E. department. The P.E. teacher, Mr. Burks, is very silly (you should see him in his penguin outfit!) and really keeps the kids excited about P.E. and being part of the school (he and the second graders are starting a school-wide project for the 100th day of school). He does a great job with the equipment that he has, but just take a look at the mats that he has to work with!
With our TerraCycle brigade, we really wanted to help him out and get some great new equipment that he could use to engage the kids even more, keeping them active as part of developing a healthy lifestyle. We also just really wanted to be able to give something fun to the kids! So we got right to work. We worked things out with the principal. Beth and I put together a collection box for the pouch drinks. We wrapped it in silver wrapping paper so that it even sort of looks like a big pouch drink! We taped some different brands of pouch drinks, including Capri Sun, to the top so that students would know what to put inside.
I went to the school to make an announcement during lunch (most of the kids recognize me anyhow) and pointed out how many of them had those drinks with them anyhow!
Grace helped me out by showing everyone what to do! Thanks to Capri Sun’s generous donation, we got a head start on our fundraising. We talked with Mr. Burks to get a better idea of what he wanted and needed and we placed the order. All we had left to do was to wait for the equipment to come in! In the meantime, we just went right collecting. By holding off and waiting to ship a larger amount, we have about $150 worth of pouch drinks to recycle in just a couple of months!
Towards the end of the year (right before Christmas break), the equipment started to arrive! Mr. Burks was almost as excited as the kids to see the FunHoop go up! The kids have started calling it “Burks’ Basket”! What fun! We also got a new wedge mat (we call it a cheese), some new flat mats with the school colors, and some new inflatable balls to go with the FunHoop. The kids are having a blast and Sophie was so excited to be one of the first to roll down the cheese!
Thanks Capri Sun!
Have you started a TerraCycle brigade at your school? It’s really not that much work for all of the smiles that you get from those sweet kids! Share your story with us by leaving a comment below.
That was such a cool thing to set up, and there had to be oodles of those pouches every day being added to the collection. What a fabulous and fun end result too. Awesome!
Oh wow, what an amazing thing you did. I would not want to play on the previous gym mats that is for sure!
That is awesome! The school my son attends doesn’t allow juice in lunches (water only), so we have to find other ways to help them. Everyone that goes there is one big family, so when they are in need, the students, parents, and the local community get involved. It’s great to see people so willing to help!
This is an awesome program, especially with so many schools having to make tough cuts lately.
That’s very cool. My kids don’t drink juice, but my oldest son is involved in a big environmental/recycling project in school.
What a fantastic project! I am very impressed! I’m going to check this out for our school and see if I can get a few more parents interested to help. Thanks for a fantastic idea – and for helping your school!
This is awesome! What a great way to give back to the school. The kids look so excited for the new equipment
This would be neat! I can’t wait until my kids are a little older to do stuff like this!
That’s an awesome thing to set up. Those smiles are priceless!
This post positively angers me. Why? Because I’ve told the school how easy it is to recycle something that a bajillion of the kids use and was told “We tried it. It’s too hard.” You’ve obviously proven that our school lied to me and that’s just not okay. I don’t like it when people lie to me. I’m wondering if the problem is that the people coordinating it just didn’t make it easy like you did. With a box clearly marked with what goes inside. By standing up during lunch and telling the kids. There’s no need for the parents to be involved which is usually what happens at our school. Maybe I need to ask them again. And reference your post. Thanks for sharing!
What a super great way to get the school and kids new equipment. Some of those mats really needed replacing. Great job!!
Wow! How awesome is that! We have participated in other programs but I’ll have to let the PTA know about this one.
I didn’t know they did this! My kids alone could get some new gym equipment with all the Capri Suns they drink. I need to bring this up at the next PTA meeting. Thanks!
I’ve seen this concept before from Capri Sun, but I didn’t actually get to see the things they made from all of the pouches they gained. I love it. That definitely had to make kids really happy.
Grace is really pretty!
I hadn’t heard of this but I am intrigued. Going to check it out for my older son’s school.
i’ve never heard of a terracycle brigade before. i’m gonna look into this for my kids school
Those old mats definitely needed to go.
What a joy to see their new equipment!
That’s so great! My son’s not in school yet but I hope the school he goes to next year does something like this. I love the TerraCycle program.