STORY PREVIEW

2023

Boot Swap: Saving Money and the Planet

North Monastery Primary School.

Cork

MENTOR

Miriam Cotter

Step 1 FEEL

List the challenges or problems in your surroundings (school,neighbourhood etc.) that bothered you.

Going to school is expensive. The cost of uniforms, books, shoes and clothes goes up every year and we need new things. Our old uniforms, books, shoes and clothes get dumped.

State the problem chosen to work and why.

Football boots and astro-turf boots are very expensive. A lot of the boots are worth between 80 and 140 euro and they get very little wear or use before we grow out of them.

Who were the people affected by the problem? What were their primary concerns?

Pupils Parents School The planet

Step 2 Imagine

List ALL the different solutions you came up with.

We could recycle uniforms but the school already does that. We will get free books this Sept and we need our books to the end of the year. Some trachsuits are very tatty and couldn't be sold. We could recycle football boots and astro- turf boots.

Which solution from those listed above did you choose to implement and why?

We could recycle football boots and astro- turf boots. We have reduced the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill which helps the planet. Recycling boots is a sustainable activity because we reuse and recycle. Our parents are delighted to save money and the school has the benefit of a charity donation and a box of boots which are available to pupils who do not have boots or who have forgotten to bring theirs to school.

Step 3DO

Describe very briefly the process of implementing your solution(s).

We organised a recycle and reuse boots day by having a Boot Swap day. We did this by making posters and putting them up around the school. After we put up the YSI: Design for Change posters on all the walls, students from 6th class explained the idea to every class from junior infants to 6th class. When someone bought in a pair of boots, they would get a boot token which entitled them to a free pair of boots on Boot Swap day. Everyday 6th class pupils collected boots from each class and Boot Swap day was the 17th May. We emailed lots of politicians and local representatives. Sean Kelly MEP tweeted and wished us luck, as did Mick Barry TD and Councillor Tony Fitzgerald.

What was the result or impact of your project?

On the 17 May at 11.30 anyone with a token got first choice of a pair of free boots. After that, anyone who brought in 5 euro (a lot cheaper than buying a new pair) was able to buy a pair of boots from a great selection. The following day there were still boots left, so anyone who brought in 5 euro could buy a pair. The remainder of the boots were put into a box which our Sciath na Scol school teams or anyone can borrow.

How many people were impacted by your solution(s)?

What did the impacted people have to say about your project? Provide 2 quotes or testimonials:

Sean Kelly MEP gave the project its name ' Saving Money and the Planet'. Originally we called it Boot Swap day but now it's called Boot Swap Day: Saving Money and the Planet. Mick Barry ( TD) I like the idea of something that's good for the climate being good also for ordinary people and their financial situation. Pupil: 'amazing boots, I never thought that I would own a pair like these' Parents; will you be doing this again next year. It's a great idea.

What challenges did you encounter while implementing your project, and how did you overcome them?

There is a wooden floor in the hall and we were worried about people ruining the floor so we used some old carpet to protect the floor. What would we do if the boots were dirty? Solution: we brought rags and cleaned the boots. How would pupils know what size boots were on display? Solution. We put a label on each pair of boots. How would we know who had donated boots? Solution: we made out tokems and wrote down names.

How long did it take to implement your solution?

15-30 Days

Which global goals does your story align with?

Sustainable cities and communities

Please explain briefly why do you think so?

Reducing the amount of rubbish sent to landfill and recycyling as much as possible will help everyone

Step 4 SHARE

How did you share your project with your school and community? Who did you share your project with? What was their response?

We emailed seven different politicians and three replied. We were delighted with the response. We posted twice on social media: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We posted the day of the Boot-Swap and when a week later then we presented the proceeds of the boot sale to Páistí Rís which is the autism unit in our school. We got lots of likes and shares on both our posts.

Approximately how many people did you share your story of change with?

More than 100

Briefly share your plan to sustain the impact of your project?

We would like to do this project again and a pupil from a secondary school in Cork wants to do something similar for his transition year project. His plan is to collect boots and astro- turf boots from his school and bring the small sizes to our school. We'll save more money and keep even more boots from going to landfill and it will be a great way to fund-raise.

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