Bridge House’s collaboration with the Bread Tags for Wheelchairs organisation reached another milestone during the recent school holiday when the seventh and eighth wheelchairs obtained in this way were presented to worthy recipients.
The seventh wheelchair was handed to Franschhoek resident Mavis Vingi, who has advanced osteoporosis in both knees. The eighth chair went to Yolanda Petersen from Somerset West, who has no right kneecap and suffers chronic back and hip pain.
If you’ve ever wondered how many bread tags are required to pay for a wheelchair the answer is 200 kg. To put that into perspective, a bread bag holds 1 kg of tags. So, keep eating bread!
In the case of bottle caps, 450 kg of bottle caps is needed for a wheelchair. The difference is down to the fact that they’re made from a different material for which a lower price is paid.
A request from the school though, please do not mix your tags and caps and make sure no other objects make it into the containers. Odd finds like batteries and toothbrushes are laborious to separate and if missed damage the recycling company’s machinery.
Since Bridge House started collecting tags in 2017 the initiative has grown to such an extent that the school now receives tags from communities all over the country – and even Australia! The seventh wheelchair was obtained through contributions from the Bridge House community and the other was a team effort between collectors in Australia and South Africa.
Text: Editorial Desk | Image: Bridge House