A local girl is helping make a difference one aluminum can at a time. Emma is her name. She is a local homeschool 5th grader who participates in the Wings of Service group. Emma has been able to enlist a local restaurant to help in her efforts. While dining at Taipei Taipei Tea House, located at 322 N. Broad St in Brooksville, she noticed the use of cans at their location and inquired if their restaurant would save those cans for her collection.
The owner of the restaurant agreed and took it a step further. Taipei Taipei set up a collection box outside their location so that anyone can drop off aluminum cans and tabs to be collected for recycling. Cans can be dropped off at Taipei Taipei anytime through the month of February. This is not the first time that Taipei Taipei Tea House has graciously helped the community. Kim Bolton, Emma’s mom indicated that the restaurant provides free Thanksgiving meals to those in need and has previously donated for their past projects.
The project is called Cans for a Cause. All the money made from the recycling of collected cans is donated to benefit the pediatric care services of Shriner’s Children’s Hospital. The Cans for a Cause project started in January 2016 and collections run through the end of February, but Wings of Service will gladly take any donated cans after that time to be recycled and donate that money to the hospital. Recycling is a great way to help the environment and Cans for a Cause helps fund a charity as well as providing a learning experience at the same time. At the end of the collection time, the students from the group will tabulate how many cans they collected and bring them to the local waste department where the cans are recycled. Finally they will take a tour of Shriner’s Hospital in Tampa and visit with some of the children there. The students will see the benefits of their hard work giving them a sense of purpose and pride in giving back.
Wings of Service is a group in Central Florida made up of children and their families interested in serving in their community. The group was started by Christina Cancel. The organization works on different projects throughout the year, each lasting 2 or 3 months, each one is planned and an education curriculum is developed. The aluminum can collection is just one of many. Their upcoming project is PB&J Tampa Bay- Hernando Chapter. The goal of this project is to provide food to the homeless here in the county. Supplies needed include peanut butter, jelly, plastic baggies, disposable serving gloves, bread, and monetary donations. Volunteers are always needed as well, and the children usually assemble the sandwiches for the parents to deliver. Anyone interested in learning more can visit their website www.wingsofservice.com, there you will see a list of previous projects, current, and upcoming ones, and learn how to get involved. Right now they have about 30 local families actively involved in the projects.
In a current day and age where negative events make the headlines, it’s truly extraordinary to see the desire and collaboration in the community to help out a good cause. One person, one small act can make a tremendous difference.