GoodHeart | UniCycle continues uniform recycling mission for back-to-school
Amazon school supply wish list to help those affected by Hurricane Beryl
Published:Saturday | August 10, 2024 | 12:08 AM
Marking its seventh year, UniCycle Jamaica continues to honour its mission with an annual summer drive to collect and redistribute gently used uniforms. This student-led, back-to-school textile recycling initiative has expanded over the years, and now includes activewear and dancewear through its partnership with its sister project, Come Mek Wi Dance. Recently, in response to Hurricane Beryl, the nonprofit extended its efforts by distributing plain clothes to affected parishes. They’ve also launched an Amazon school supply wish list, inviting locals and the diaspora to contribute to help those recovering from the hurricane.
“In the very beginning, UniCycle started with boys’ uniforms. And over the last seven years, it’s grown tremendously. We [eventually] branched out into girls’ uniforms. And then even after just five years, we had collected and redistributed 3,000 uniforms,” co-founder Rhys Greenland, who is preparing to start his second year at Harvard University, told GoodHeart. His sister Maria, a student at Campion College, and the outreach coordinator and programme manager, added, “It’s good to know that after so many years, we’re still going.”
The National Education Trust (NET), one of the long-time partners of the initiative and main mobiliser of donations, shared that the organisation deeply values its ongoing partnership with UniCycle Jamaica. They highlighted how much families appreciate the uniforms and noted that the additional supplies will be greatly welcomed. Other major partners include Fontana, which is one of their main central drop-off location islandwide and Campion College, another collection point.
“We work closely with our partners. With NET, after we’ve collected the uniforms from Campion College and Fontana, we head down to pack them, we sort them, then we distribute them to where they’re needed; and NET has the network to better understand where donations should go,” Rhys shared.
The Amazon school supply drive wish list, in partnership with Jamaica.com, Food For The Poor, NET, and others, includes items such as school bags and stationery supplies like books, rulers, pens, and pencils. According to the description, the list – available in the bio of UniCycle Jamaica’s Instagram page @unicyclejamaica – will be open until August 12.
Interested donors can contribute gently used uniforms of any kind, from any school, at any Fontana location in Kingston, Portmore, or Montego Bay, or at Campion College’s bookstore. Additionally, Maria mentioned that “dancewear, activewear, and school shoes” are also welcome.
Each year the UniCycle drive is soft-launched as part of Campion College’s environmental club, Green Generation, staging of its now annual Zero Waste Week.
“Zero waste weeks are week-long campaigns that aim to spread awareness of the circular economy and reduce waste consumption,” Maria highlighted. “We tend to stage our school’s Zero Waste Week near to Earth Day. It begins with a quiz in our school’s courtyard and ends with a climate action scavenger hunt. Throughout the week, we feature themed days such as Meatless Monday where we share vegetarian recipes, Tee-Totes Tuesday where we upcycle old T-shirts into tote bags without sewing, and Fast Fashion Friday where we launch our UniCycle and Come Mek Wi Dance drives. ”
When asked what’s next for UniCycle Jamaica, the siblings pointed out that they are looking ahead to the next drive.
“Once this year’s drive is over, we will immediately look to next year and we assess from there. A year ago we couldn’t have predicted Hurricane Beryl and it has impacted and motivated our focus for this year,” Rhys added.