Dorset Blind Association received around 300 aluminium drink cans on Saturday 29 November thanks to donors NatWest Bank staff and Canford Heath residents.  Some of the cans included those which were part of a litter pick on Canford Heath that morning.

Thanks as ever to Hayley and Simon at the Coffee House Café at Adastral Square for hosting the drop-off point and for everyone who brought along donations.

Neil Baugh, Relationship Manager, NatWest Business Banking East Dorset (left) with cans collected by staff.  The Bank donated 15 can crushers and a Canford Heath resident is holding his.  Monique Munroe our co-ordinator is on the right.

Melanie (a volunteer with Dorset Blind Association), Monique Munroe, Jaya da Costa, Fundraising Manager and Neil Baugh

For every tonne of paper (newspapers, junk mail, magazines and telephone books) that Perrys Recycling collect from their recycling paper banks based at various supermarkets in Dorset, they will donate £10 to the Dorset Community Foundation.  See http://www.dorsetcommunityfoundation.org/how-to-donate/perrys-recycling/ for further details and start donating today!

Following a great response from our feature in the Wessex Water Magazine, we are now helping someone in Somerset to start a We Need That directory in the county.  If you live in Somerset and would like to get involved, please use our contact form for further details.

We’re thrilled to see ourselves on page 5 of the Autumn/Winter issue of the Wessex Water Magazine.  Just on the first day of it being delivered we had two enquiries from readers about how they could donate or receive items via We Need That. Here is the link http://www.wessexwaterebooks.co.uk/autumnmagazine2014/

We’re delighted to announce that the Dorset Community Foundation re: Poole Communities Fund 2014,  has approved our grant to undertake a new Win-on-Waste project, this time in Creekmoor.  Between February and April 2015, Creekmoor residents will have the opportunity to save items from their black or blue bins and donate them to the voluntary organisations who require them.   A big thank you to the Foundation and Poole Communities Fund for giving us the opportunity to run another innovative recycling project.

A big thank you to NatWest for giving us some can crushers.  These will be given away on the 29th November when we’ll be at the Coffee House Café on Canford Heath to receive aluminium drink cans which are currently being collected by Canford Heath residents.  We hope that local schools and NatWest staff will be taking part too.

The cans will be given to Dorset Blind Association and any money raised will help them to buy Christmas presents for their members.

If you live on Canford Heath and would like to take part, please crush your cans and ensure they are as empty as possible, then bring them along to the Coffee House Café at Adastral Square between 11am and 1pm on Saturday 29 November.

For further information, please contact Monique 07771 705662.

Sending out paper copies of our We Need That directory costs us a lot of money in printing and postage costs, so we were thrilled to hear from J.P. Morgan that they are giving us some funding to pay for these.  The money will be used to print and post copies to (i) older people who do not know how to use the internet and (ii) to people who cannot afford to have a computer at home and are therefore are unable to access the directory online.

The We Need That directory which now covers both Bournemouth and Poole and was launched at AFC Bournemouth on Wednesday 6 August.  The directory now has 36 voluntary organisations and individuals looking for items which local people may be throwing away.  Click here to see a copy: http://www.ideas2action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/We-Need-That-Aug-14.pdf

Solveig is holding a light bulb as a symbol of the Ideas2Action logo!

Just under 3000 corks and bottle tops were collected by Canford Heath residents and donated to the Dorset Scrapstore on Saturday 28 June.  One resident managed to collect 949.  Throughout July cans and lolly sticks are being collected and will be donated to Dorset Wildlife Trust and Dorset Blind Association at the Coffee House Café on Saturday 26 July between 11 and 1.

In celebration of Recycle Week 2014, we have just launched our Recycling Ambassadors scheme.  If you love recycling and would like to encourage others to feel as passionately as you do, please get in touch with Monique who will send you the necessary details.

Being a Recycling Ambassador needn’t be time consuming.  You could become an Ambassador just by speaking to your friends and family.  Others may want to encourage their work colleagues or colleagues from membership organisations they belong to.

To apply call Monique 07771 705662 or email: contact@ideas2action.org.uk