The first Toy Bonanza was held at St Lawrence Church in Alton in 2022 as a reaction to the cost of living crisis. Toys and books are donated by residents, church members and local schools. On a Saturday morning the church is open for families to come and see the toys and take what they would like for free.
The Toy Bonanza is now run twice a year, prior to the summer holidays in July and in November in the run up to Christmas.
St Lawrence is one of four churches within the Parish of the Resurrection (POTR) and the Toy Bonanza is organised by the POTR Eco Church team.
Eco Church lead Elspeth Mackeggie Gurney said, “I think we have a huge responsibility to care for God’s creation. We’ve trashed it as humans and we’ve only woken up to that, really, in the last ten years or so. As a church, we should lead the way, which is what the Eco Church team are trying to do, via the A Rocha programme. People come up with brilliant ideas like the Toy Bonanza, and we’ve run with it.”
Alongside Saturday’s Toy Bonanza, there were plastic free activities for the children including sea creature biscuits to decorate, and suggestions of environmentally friendly activities for the summer holidays.
Primary school teacher Fiona Walke came up with the idea for the Toy Bonanza. She said, “I was sitting in church, and I was thinking about all the people who are struggling at the moment. I wanted to try and stop our throwaway society and make people think about how we could recycle, by not just by giving away, but by taking and using things that other people have used before. I thought of toys and books, because young children outgrow these, and if they’re not broken, they can be used again and again. It’s a win for the environment and a win for our pockets.”
Toys left at the end of the event are given to charity shops or saved for another occasion. Only a small amount has to be thrown away. At last year’s event the team weighed the plastic. 42.5kg was collected and only 8kg couldn’t be reused, saving the majority from landfill.
Carol Outlaw is one of the Eco Church team and said she prayed in her car ahead of the event. “I was early so I thought ‘I’ll just sit for a minute’. I prayed that it was a successful event, but above all that people would understand why we’re doing it and take that away with them and try and use it in their lives. If they’re not already, to think about the amount of waste that we produce and the amount of plastic we use. If just a little spark is ignited in someone’s mind, as to what we need to be doing, that would be good. It’s easy to say, ‘what difference is my little contribution going make’, but all big things come from small beginnings, so I just hope that this will help people become more conscious and to do what they can to help the planet.”
Around 50 families attend the Toy Bonanza with new people coming along each time. The church also served coffee, tea, cakes and ice lollies.
Dad Tom Rowland is a member of the church and visited the Toy Bonanza with his young sons. He said, “It’s a great way of getting rid and getting new. It’s a good community space to meet other people and to serve our community in a low key way.”
Fiona Walke added, “We’ve seen families today who we’ve not seen before, which means the word’s getting out there and we’re helping people to make their funds go further. I think it’s important to have this in the church because it can sometimes be hard to get people who don’t go to church to come into the building, but if they’re coming in for an event, it’s not a scary place anymore. I often tell people about what we do on a Sunday and so you make new links. I think the hardest thing for the church is reaching people who don’t attend, and this is a really good way of doing that.”
The Toy Bonanza is one of a number of eco initiatives by the Parish of the Resurrection which holds a Silver Eco Church award.
They also do a craft swap which runs in a similar way to the toy bonanza. They have installed LED lighting and improved some of the insulation. They help negotiate electricity contracts to ensure the church is on a green tariff.
Three of the churches have joined Count on Nature in association with Alton Natural History Society, who give advice on the nature in the churchyard and tips on how to manage the land for wildlife.
The church has planted a wildflower garden and, with a donation, is developing a quiet garden for church members and the local community. The Eco Church is represented on the team currently looking at the future of the building, to ensure decisions are made in eco-friendly ways.
There is a creation care service outdoors each year and the church has also forged links with St Lawrence Church of England Primary School and is supporting them in their work towards the Eco-Schools award.
The Christmas Toy Bonanza also includes a ‘Greener Christmas’ event showing people how to have an environmentally friendly Christmas. Lifestyle hints are put in the weekly parish email including anything from switching from shampoo bottles to shampoo bars and how to cut back on plastic.
Elspeth added, “Everybody gets a buzz from being part of the team. There’s somebody who takes responsibility for land, someone who does lifestyle, I do community and worship. My big strap line is we don’t want to have an Eco Church team, we want Eco Church to be embedded in our DNA, so we don’t think, we just do it automatically. So, when purchasing tea and coffee, we buy Fairtrade. When we’re looking at electricity contracts, we don’t think about anything except green tariffs. That’s where we want to be, that it becomes part of what we naturally do.”
