Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Thanking our trash collectors

Children love to do meaningful work. I always find that when they feel their work is useful or relevant the quality is always amazing.  As part of our litter project, the children were brainstorming ways of getting in touch with the trash collectors. We had lots of ideas. Anna sent an email with their questions to the city, but we hadn't yet heard back and the children really wanted to do something for them. They have been so appalled with litter that they wanted to let the trash collectors know that they were appreciated. So, Anna, our atelierista, who is always the problem solver, gave them a provocation - how about a thank you card. They loved this idea and brainstormed how they could get them to the trash collectors. Leaving a note on the trash can was the consensus. Anna again took their idea a step further,  to make three dimensional cards that would stand out when placed on a trash can. The children had been worried that the cards may be mistaken for trash.
So they created cards in the studio.  As you can see the cards were beautiful.
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It was coming up to winter break so I asked the children to send a picture or report back the response to their kindness.  It was so wonderful to hear what had happened.
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"She was delirously happy as she got a wave, a "Thankyou" shout out, and honking from the driver."
"They honked the horn in thanks"
These reponses were so special to the children and their seemingly small thing became huge to them. The work was meaningful, it gave them joy and sent joy to some important people in their neighborhood, They so enjoyed the opportunity to reach out and make someone's day.
They are now ready to take their litter campaign global!
"This project was made possible by an award from Partners in the Arts."

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