Buddy Benches

Help reduce social isolation in our school! The Lady Leaders in grades pre-K through eight at Douglas MacArthur Girls’ Leadership Academy have been collecting plastic bottle caps for the past 1.5 years, and now they need your support! With your help, more than 600 pounds of bottle caps will be recycled into three “Buddy Benches.” Each 8-foot bench costs $300, resulting in a need for $900 to make our bottle-cap benches a reality. The benches offer a concrete way for students to notice when someone is feeling lonely. If someone is lonely, they can go sit on the bench, and others know to go up and ask them to play. Thanks to our awesome Physical Education Instructor Mrs. Anderson and her team for initiating and leading this project! Moms Lacey Reidl and Valerie Jerome are lending a hand in raising funds for implementation.

1. CHILDREN own the project, receive caps (from community), sort caps

2. MENTOR/TEACHER supervises sorting, teaches values of earth care and promises

3. SPONSORS provides funding for benches (that's us!)

4. DRIVER logistics (caps to Green Tree, Bench to children)

5. GREEN TREE PLASTICS turns caps into benches

6. REGISTER your organization. 

7. PLACE your order, allowing a minimum of three weeks. 

A Bench for Caps (ABC) Promise Partnership was designed for school children by a team of 6 eighth graders in March, 2010, as their entry in a nation-wide academic competition in community problem solving. Topic: recycling.

This “partnership” between children and Green Tree Plastics is specifically to be a tool for teaching about caring for the earth. The students and team at Douglas MacArthur are also fostering an environment of inclusion and kindness by adding the Buddy Bench component. Their goal is to help end social isolation for students on the playground. When someone is lonely, they can sit on the bench, and others will know to invite them to play.

The benches will belong to the children; they will be placed where they want them to be placed so they can show others the results of their work and the value of recycling, and so that the students can use it when they need a buddy!  The students and teacher-mentor will develop a pledge for the bench.