Johan Lewis is a young man on a mission.
This grade five learner from Curro Bankenveld is collecting cold drink bottle caps.
He is aiming to collect enough to trade it in for a wheelchair.
This project allows for 450 kg plastic bottle tops or 50 kg plastic bread tags to be exchanged for a standard adult wheelchair.
“Together with the help of our volunteers, significant amounts of bread tags and plastic bottle tops are collected and then recycled by local recycling companies,” is the word from the Sweetheart Wheelchair Foundation.
Depending on the recycling company, the sweethearts are either provided with standard adult wheelchairs or funds which are put towards obtaining specialised wheelchairs.
Curro Bankenveld adopted this project, and learners who were actively involved get merits, and with enough merits collected at the end of the term, they are given a toy.
Johan immediately got to work and collected 2 034 plastic caps last year.
This year Johan decided to embark on the project again, but not for merits, but in loving memory of his pet, a centipede called Gary.
“Gary died because the lid on his enclosure was not closed. So he got out. I searched all over and thought he went outside because my bedroom door was open. I later found him in my room. I think he starved,” Johan said with a sad tremor in his voice.
He started looking for a new pet, and while looking, he found some caps with dead worms and bugs in them.
He reckons if he can get more people to give him the caps, he could save ‘goggas’ and worms and help a person in need.
His idea reflects the word of the pillars of the Mpumalanga Land Service, ‘Love for God, love for nature, love for neighbour and love for labour’.
Johan’s project shows that a small gesture of picking up a plastic cap is something so small and effortless, but it can make such a huge impact on nature and another person.
Curro Bankenveld is also sponsoring a ‘Spekboom’ for every bag of caps a person, a business or household hands in at the school.
“With this initiative, they take the bad out of the ground and replace it with planting something good,” Johan said.
WITBANK NEWS supports Johan’s project and calls on its readers to pop into the office and drop plastic caps and bread tags off at the office. As soon as the boxes are full, Johan will collect them.
WITBANK NEWS is situated at 2 Lana Street in Model Park.
