Toy swap, toys for Ukraine and books for Mongolia: ‘A Toy’s Life and Beyond’ fundraiser at Storey’s Field

‘A Toy’s Life and Beyond’, the toy recycling initiative that allows children to swap their toys with other children, is hosting an event at Storey’s Field Centre, Eddington on Saturday.

The free-to-all event, designed to avoid toys ending up as landfill, runs from 2pm to 4pm and will include two other appeals.

“Someone from Mongolia is collecting books to go to Mongolia,” says Antoinette, “so if you can bring books for readers up to teenager years, please bring them along - English is fine because they’re learning English.”

This is the second toy swap of the year.

“Anybody who wants to swap toys is welcome,” said organiser and founder of A Toy’s Life and Beyond, Antoinette Nestor. “There is also a toy drive to send toys to Ukraine so please, if you have any toys you don’t need bring them along and also if businesses would like to donate funds for transport costs to Ukraine that would be really welcome. The shipping is being organised by someone from Ukraine living locally.”

The other component is a call for books for Mongolia.

“We aim to have one every quarter so there’ll be more this year,” says Antoinette. “The first one we held was around Christmas time in 2018, so there’s been around 20 so far, most of them in Storey’s Field Centre but there’s also one in one of the villages, Queen Edith’s as well, Cambridge Junction before lockdown.

“It’s still just me with some volunteers and now we’re part of Transition Cambridge so that means we get more publicity, plus we share similar ideas of helping to transition to a net zero economy, a sustainable economy, which helps to spread the word.”

More details here.