PARNDANA teenager Regan Clark has been turning a potential waste product into something useful, by collecting plastic bread clips to help the people of South Africa.
Born and bred on Kangaroo Island, the young girl already has hundreds of bread tags in jars ready to be recycled and made into bowls.
The profits from these bowl sales will then go towards buying wheelchairs for people in need in South Africa.
"Someone told me about the project and I thought, this is an easy thing to do," Regan said.
"There are a lot of bread clips and if I can donate in such an easy way, then why not?"
There are a lot of bread clips and if I can donate in an easy way, then why not?
- REGAN CLARK
Regan herself has never been to South Africa, but felt the need to help.
Now she is hoping others might join her in this worthy cause.
"We need 200 kilograms of bread tags to have enough money to purchase just one wheelchair," Regan said.
She has already encouraged others in the community to get involved.
Together with the help of her local sports club, two Parndana grocery stores and her extended family, she has collected 3.8kg of the bread tags already during the past two years and will continue to do so.
The 14-year-old, who lives on a farm in the heartland of the island, says donations can also be made directly via the website, for either money or bread tags.
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The bread clips can be sent directly to Oz Bread Clips for Wheelchairs or people can post them to Regan herself, who has encouraging support from her family.
"This is a fantastic way of teaching our children the importance of recycling and what can be achieved if we all worked together in this," Regan's mother Penny said.
"And instead of them going into landfill, they become useful."
To donate, visit ozbreadtagsforwheelchairs.org.au or send tags to Regan Clark c/o Parndana Post Office, SA, 5220.
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