In this update: 1. Report on our successful launch 2. Can poetry save the world? 3. Pocket-money-tastic 4. Volunteering update 5. What's next? |
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Hello No Toy Left Behind Supporter! Thank you for signing up to follow the project's progress and receive our news! We are super proud to report that we are now open 5 afternoons a week (1-4pm Monday, Weds, Thurs, Fri and Saturday)! If you haven't been in to visit us yet, please do! |
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Yes....that's me doing cheesy jazz hands at our launch event, looking a bit shell shocked (but also proud) because we did it! We actually pulled it off and achieved our dream of opening a community preloved toy shop! So many people helped make our launch event a success and I hope I remember to thank you all! Thank you to all the crowdfunding supporters and the Crowdfunder team who helped us to successfully fund the project, everyone at Pippins Community Centre who were so welcoming and enthusiastic and helped us get the room ready for our opening (especially all the shelves and painting), to all the volunteers who worked hard counting puzzle pieces and cleaning toys (Ellie, Becky, Catherine, Hannah, Emily, Amy, Gina and Caitlin), project directors Caley and Lisa who were kept busy cleaning/washing/checking/sorting/painting and putting up shelves, Allen, Xander, Klara and Ev who are helping run the shop and to everyone who came to help on the launch day especially Hannah, Keren, Lucie, Jess and Karen. THANK YOU ALL! So what did we do at the launch party apart from eating cake and showing off the new shop!? -> We had an interesting update from Catherine Causley from East Devon District Council. She talked about local plans to work towards zero carbon. |
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-> Lots of you made some fab art using broken toys, which we plan to get up on the wall in Pippins Community Centre. |
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Can poetry save the world? My sister gave me a ticket to see poet Hollie McNish ("Like Pam Ayres on acid") perform at the Marine Theatre in Lyme Regis. She was great! But I want to tell you about the supporting act, poet Chris Redmond. He performed his powerful poem called Boat Building, which is about how overwhelming and disempowering it can feel when faced with something big like climate breakdown. "Now even in my dreams I’m rescuing children from floods and liars Turn the ship around, please Turn the ship around Does anyone else even know how to steer it?" But the poem ends full of optimism, with instructions to imagine a different ship: a boat full of people singing and rowing together. And it calls for us to row along with them. "When we act on our own, our actions can feel too small. When we work together, we can make a difference." Find out more about the Hot Poet project "12 poems about saving the world" here. |
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Pocket-money-tastic We've had a great response to our 20p pocket money shelves which are helping us re-home all the miscellaneous small plastic toys you donate. As you know, our core mission is environmental, and rehoming these toys definitely beats binning them, but it turns out that you guys are also super happy for your kids to have some real-world maths practice adding up their 20ps! |
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Volunteering update Thank you to all our wonderful volunteers who have been giving up their time helping us save toys! We have a small team of volunteers who help us run the shop throughout the week and check and clean toys, puzzles and games. Would you like to join in and help us with our mission to make it easy for people to love preloved toys? Our store room really is fit to burst, so we need more volunteers to help us get our donations "shelf ready"!! Let us know if you could help us by washing teddy bears, pampering Peppa Pig or bathing a Barbie! We're looking for more volunteers who can come to the shop to collect a bag for life sized bundle of toys to take home and check/clean/pamper to get them ready for a new child to love! Fill in the volunteer sign up form or drop us an email at notoyleftbehindproject@gmail.com to find out more! |
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What's next? Everyone in the No Toy Left Behind team are super happy with how things have gone so far! We've realised the dream and hit the ground running! But we know there's still loads to do! -> We're waiting on a Ukrainian translation of a welcome message, so we can support any children who come to live in the Axminster area via the Homes for Ukraine scheme. -> We are working hard behind the scenes to get the commercial side of the website ready. This will enable you to reserve toys if you're local and it will allow us to spread the No Toy Left Behind preloved love further afield! The plan is to take it slowly, test the water, and start by uploading the upcycled jewelry and soft toys. We'll let you know via email and social media when we're ready....watch this space and once it's live, if you have any feedback for us please let us know! This is all a steep learning curve! -> We've already had a go running a "journey of a toy" session with the local cubs and we all had fun making upcycled art from broken toys at our launch event, but plans are afoot to regularly offer workshops. We want them to be enjoyable activitiesthat also work to highlight the environmental impact of our culture of consumerism. -> I am super conscious that, with launching the shop, we haven't prioritised renewing the kids club mini zine content. This is on the to-do list and is something we will aim to get in the routine of updating regularly. -> We're not on the high street so we need to work extra hard to make sure everyone knows about us! We've designed some new banners to go up on the railings outside Pippins and you'll begin to see our amazing posters going up in Axminster and surrounding towns, thanks to our wonderful volunteers Sarah and Allen! If you would like to help us spread the word by putting up a poster at your home/school/preschool/nursery or on your community's noticeboard please feel free to print out a flyer or let us know via email notoyleftbehindproject@gmail.com and you can come and pick up a poster! |
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We've come so far since a scribbled idea in a notebook 12 months ago.... You can read our previous updates here: February January December |
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You are receiving this email because you asked to be subscribed either via the online form on our website, via our 2021 Crowdfunder, via our volunteer sign up form or our toy donation form. If you would like to unsubscribe simply email us at notoyleftbehindproject@gmail.com |
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