That's right, fire departments and hospitals in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio are engaging in a program called Aluminum Cans for Burned Children, collecting and donating millions of aluminum cans for recycling, and utilizing the redemption funds first to help prevent burns through education, and then to help child burn victims recover both physically and emotionally from their wounds by providing funding for research, annual therapeutic residential burn camps, and other year round activities that support their physical, psychological, and social needs. One such program is to help send kids to an annual five-day Summer Camp for children who have been patients at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital Burn Trauma Center. The Camp for Burned Children provides them with the opportunity to interact with other kids who have also had the difficult experience of being burned and who know the resulting physical and emotional trauma, thereby creating a sense of friendship and inclusion that helps all of them cope with their everyday realities.

Another program helps kids who have been burn victims come back to school in a way that minimizes the friction that can occur when classmates who are unfamiliar with the situation come into contact with them for the first time, and may be unsure of how to respond to a child who has had their appearance altered or needs to suddenly wear things like pressure garments to help them get through their everyday routine. In one example of a Back-To-School Program, the school is provided with age-appropriate materials and activities that are used to share the child’s story, which helps to build support for the child among the other kids in class. Ultimately the simple fact is that returning to school can be difficult for a child who has been burned because the physical and emotional scars from burns can create insecurities about their self-image and acceptance by their peers, but through programs like ACBC child burn victims are getting a second chance through recycled cans...

Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:

• Electronics TakeBack Coalition Grades TV Makers on Recycling
• Paper Piling Up In Warehouses as Market Collapses
• Take Back the Filter Campaign Succeeds: Brita Will Recycle
• How to Go Green: Cocktails

The Computer as Art, Friend

Curl up with a Good Book: Paper Back Swap