Seven-year-old Thomas Reed has a big treat in store: a “soft play” birthday party with up to 40 friends. And they’ll get it for half the usual price.
That is Thomas’s prize for winning a children’s colouring competition organised by Fenland District Council to encourage more recycling.
The Reed family, from Chatteris, are planning to hold his eighth birthday party at the Manor Centre in Whittlesey in June.
The two runners-up, Cameron Webb (8) and Megan Cooke (8), are both from Whittlesey. Each won two free family swims at the Manor.
Their challenge was to pick their favourite cartoon character out of a choice of 12, give it a name, colour it in and fill in a speech bubble explaining why it would like to be recycled.
The winners named their characters Trashy, Slimey Wimey and Bubbly Bobby.
Councillor Peter Murphy, FDC’s cabinet member responsible for the environment, presented the three children with framed pictures of their characters and recycling goodie bags.
He said: “If you can teach children about the importance of recycling and the need to use the right bins for all their waste, they pass that on to their parents and friends.
“It’s a really good way of getting the message across.
“The more we can recycle, the better, because not only is it obviously good for the environment, it also generates income for the council that we can use for other services.”
Thomas said: “I’m really happy to have won. If we don’t recycle, our planet will look really, really dirty.”
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