Become a rainbow friend

Random Acts of Crochet Kindness

www.randomactsofcrochetkindness.com

Can you crochet?  Are you looking for some projects to keep you busy?

If so, perhaps you might think of making some random acts of crochet kindness!  

 These are small individual items which are made and left in strategic places for other people to find and keep.  The idea is to give a little piece of brightness and happiness to someone else, making their day more special and making people smile. These kind strangers donating items for the benefit of someone else, are helping to build a community of kindness that other people can join in too.

The aim of random acts is to make the world a happier and more positive place. In amongst all the doom and gloom of local and world news, finding a random object in a random place can mean the difference between having a gloomy day and finding joy in life. In this way, we can help others to improve their mental health and wellbeing with the joy of finding a random piece of crochet, but at the same time, the joy of giving improves our own mental wellbeing too! It is a win/win situation.

It is amazing how a small, simple but unexpected gesture can have a huge impact on other people. Finding something unexpectedly can completely change your view of the day and make you think that life is not so hard or difficult or unhappy as you originally thought.

A Facebook page by the same name was created by Olivia Dieterich who lost one of her best friends to suicide. It was a difficult time for everyone concerned and Olivia decided that she needed a distraction and a purpose to help her cope. She began a 100 day flower challenge which involved her creating 100 flowers with a message, that she would leave in random places for strangers to find. In this way she hoped to make someone else smile.  The BBC contacted her when they discovered what was going on and how by making these simple flowers, Olivia was creating joy and light in what had been a dark time for her and her friends.

There are many different groups, some purely devoted to crochet and others that are linked to the more general random acts of kindness groups.  Crocheters can create anything they wish – hearts, flowers, butterflies, worry worms and so on to brighten the day and make someone smile, or more useful items such as hats and scarves which can be left for homeless people to take.  Many items are placed in plastic bags to keep them protected from the weather until they are found and many will have a simple note or rhyme attached explaining that the item is free and intended to be taken. They might explain the reasoning behind the movement: to spread happiness and joy and to give comfort.

There are loads of ideas on YouTube or Pinterest as well as on the various random acts Facebook pages. Many encourage people to post images of their creations and where they are left, will offer free patterns and will have helpful information on how to go about creating your own random acts.

Random acts of crochet kindness uses one stitch at a time to create a warmer and more connected world, allowing people to share their skills, their passions and their warmth to make a positive impact on a stranger’s day. The maker is likely never to know who finds their creations or what effect it might have, but they are aware that they are beginning a chain reaction.  They create an item, it is found, a person will smile and maybe that will be passed onto somebody else in need of some support.

Being kind to one another without any specific reason just feels great. Knowing that you are brightening someone’s day, making them smile and forget their troubles for a while has a wonderful effect on your own mental health and wellbeing. It is true that kind words and actions may not seem to be that significant or grand, but the long-term effects and the ripple effect that they cause are surprisingly large.

Find a group near you, check out the Facebook groups or set up a random group of your own and spread a little joy in what can appear to be a very dark, depressing and difficult world to negotiate at the moment.  Have some fun, use bright colours and enjoy the secrecy involved in making and hiding your creations. Hopefully messages will appear on your local Facebook site explaining just what joy these delightful finds can have.

Boots recycling schemes

www.boots.com

recycle your blister packs, contact lens packaging and empty toiletry containers

To participate all you have to do is download the Recycle at Boots app.  Here you can log your empties and await validation.  Once 5 items are approved, these can be deposited in a participating store, the collection bin scanned and advantage points awarded.  Full details can be found on their website alongside a store locator for you to find your nearest collecting point. Blister packs must be empty but if you have some still containing medication that is not needed, speak to the pharmacy team who will help you dispose of it safely and responsibly.

On collection, the blister packs are taken to MyGroup who separate the foil and plastic using a specialised machine. The separated metal foil is recycled conventionally as it can be reused over and over again and the plastic components are processed into a useable form to be used in the creation of items such as window frames and piping.  Nothing goes to landfill or is incinerated.

Another recycling scheme which I have not seen before but am excited by, is for the blister packs and foil covers from contact lenses.  In 2021 over 2.2m items of contact lens packaging was recycled, diverting 12 tons of waste from landfill. Boots Opticians stores have a Zero Waste Box which makes recycling a simple and convenient solution to getting rid of your packaging.

Recycle at Boots will also take some of your empty health, beauty, wellness and dental product containers in their mission to keep Britain beautiful. Many brands can be recycled by conventional kerbside collection schemes, but there are some that cannot be disposed of in this way due to their size or the materials used in their manufacture.  The Recycle at Boots app will again be used in this instance.  The app validates items that can be taken to the store and will not accept anything that can be recycled by normal means. Validation will occur within 24 hours and points can be earned.

All items need to be washed and thoroughly cleaned. Participants then log them into the app, await validation and then deposit them in store in the various collecting boxes. The QR code on the box needs to be scanned to earn your rewards. Recycle 5 or more items and spend £10 in store to collect 500 Advantage Card points.

Packaging is reused to make garden furniture, playground equipment and other useful items, once again transforming our rubbish/waste into something more valuable and avoiding landfill.

These schemes are easy to use if you can handle Apps and avoid overuse of landfill sites. It seems a great initiative from Boots and another way to increase the number of customers heading through their doors when many big name shops are struggling. It is great to see them adapting, listening to their customers and helping them to dispose of unwanted items in a responsible and useful way.

Donate your unwanted LEGO bricks to inspire the builders of tomorrow

LEGO Replay

www.lego.com/Replay-UK

They love to hear that no bricks are wasted – that sets are passed between friend’s and families and are used over and over again for many years. However, they are also aware that there may finally be a time when you have no one else to pass it onto or your family is just not interested.  LEGO will suggest donating it to charity shops, local community activities or schools but they have also launched the LEGO Replay scheme in the UK as a way to ‘breathe new life into old bricks by transforming them into useful items that inspire playful learning.’

The Replay scheme was launched in the United States in 2019, Canada in 2020 and finally in the UK in 2024. It is a very simple scheme which enables people to donate their unwanted or odd bricks without fuss or cost. LEGO are aware that 94% of British LEGO is re gifted or donated to good causes and they don’t want to stop this but, if you have odd bricks or sets with missing pieces, they don’t want these to be thrown into the bin, ultimately ending up as landfill. These pieces can be reused, redistributed or created into new items.

LEGO states ‘Your LEGO bricks aren’t ready to retire yet. They’ve still got plenty of adventure left in them,’ and they have set up the Replay scheme to address this.

The scheme is incredibly simple. They ask you to break up all your spare bits into individual pieces, pack them into a box, download a freepost label and then send it to them! Pack it, Print it, Ship it! The bricks don’t even have to be cleaned before packing though you can if you want to. All donated bricks are cleaned on site before transforming into new items but there are handy hints on the website if you wish to wash bricks or clean your own collection. Once received, the donations are cleaned and organised into collections that have a variety of components to help children create and build in an open-ended way - they are not designed to be sets to make a specific item. Each collection will have a mixture of shapes and colours. Breaking down the bricks makes it easier to pack and for sorting at the collection point.

LEGO Replay are collecting any LEGO system bricks from single or multiple sets, LEGO mini figures and mini dolls plus LEGO baseplates. They are not collecting Duplo or Technic, sets that are already put together (either partially or fully), batteries or electrical components, LEGO merchandise, instructions or packaging – it is bricks only.

Boxed donations can be taken to any DPD Drop off Point. Some old bricks are transformed into storage boxes and then filled with new LEGO bricks to be donated to children and communities in need, others will be distributed in mixed selections.

It’s a great way to reuse bricks that are no longer needed or wanted. LEGO see it as another way to extend the current life of their bricks rather than using energy and resources to transform them into something new and helping the company to reduce its environmental impact.  Tim Brooks LEGO’s VP of environmental sustainability says ‘We want to rehome, repurpose or recycle every LEGO brick to keep them in play for longer.’

This scheme seems an ideal way to ensure that that happens. So next time you are having a sort out, collect up those sets with missing pieces, the bits your own children don’t need or want anymore or your partner’s ancient sets from their childhood and send them off to Replay. You can then be happy knowing that you are helping another generation to build, dream and explore new worlds and who knows, maybe supporting and inspiring the architects and construction workers of the future!

Keep an eye on your neighbours and wildlife through the colder months

Many local communities have organised hot spots – places where people can gather to keep warm, have a hot drink, a simple meal and some company and these are amazing places providing a very valuable service. But when the weather is bad, it is not always easy for people to access them – the dangers are too great or the weather too cold. And this is when problems can occur. A lonely person can begin feeling more isolated.  A cold person gets even colder. And a hungry person, can’t get out to get something to eat.  So what can we do as a good neighbour to help those in our community who are finding things hard?

I am sure you can think of lots of things but here are a few examples:

Find out where your local hotspot is and offer your services. You could help with the preparation and serving of food, donate some produce that could be turned into nutritious meals, do the washing up or just sit with the more vulnerable in your community offering companionship and comfort.

Check on elderly or vulnerable neighbours. Pop in to say hello and ensure that they are warm and comfortable, that they have a hot drink to hand and something warm to eat.

Ring people for a chat and brighten their day especially if they have been confined to their house and unable to get out, providing a link to the outside world and the opportunity to speak to a real person.

Ensure you have torches and candles to hand in the event of a power cut and visit an elderly person if there is one to make sure they are safe and not afraid.

Offer to baby sit for young families if a parent needs to go to work or out to buy groceries but would find it hard to take their children with them or offer to do the shopping for them instead.

Clear pathways for those unable to do it themselves so that they can get to their cars, or to their dustbins etc without fear of falling over.

Check for stray animals and leave out food and water for them.  Keep bird tables well stocked and break ice on water bowls regularly so they have access to drinking water.

These are just a few examples, there are so many more things we could do as a community to ensure that our friends and neighbours are safe, warm, well fed and able to cope. I am lucky that I live in a small village and although I don’t know many people who live here, there were clear signs that our community is alive and thriving when I went out this morning.  A farmer had brought his tractor and was clearing the small roads.  Some people were using the grit tubs to make the corners easier to handle, others were shovelling snow from driveways. The next village along has been partly hit by a power cut but several households had sent messages to say that they had electricity and were happy for anyone to pop in for  a warm, a hot drink or to fill their flasks with hot water. Others were saying they had plenty of food and people were welcome to call in for a simple but warming meal. When the news is often filled with gloom and stories of people being cruel and unkind, these simple gestures truly make you believe that there are still many kind people and good community feeling around.  Wouldn’t it be nice to publicise that more instead?

So this wintertime, when the weather gets bad, be a Rainbow friend and call on someone you think may need some assistance. Even if they don’t, having a visitor or a call from a friendly neighbour, will brighten their day.  No one should feel isolated, cold, hungry or alone – it costs nothing to call in apart from time but the good that you could do with that simple act is immeasurable.

Be a good friend and neighbour, keep that community spirit going and know that by helping someone else, it will brighten your day too!