Blog: Toy Swap and The Eddington Hour radio show

I first came to Eddington when my eldest son started at the University of Cambridge Primary School three years ago.

The topic of plastic in the oceans was just coming into the mainstream and, when I was sorting things out in my house, and I saw all these toys around, I realised that toys are polluting the planet as well. I wondered whether we could swap our toys with the toys other children had grown tired of. With help from the Community Development Team, I applied to the Community Chest fund for financial assistance and it’s really grown organically from there. The Toy Swap is a way of teaching children about recycling and how, in little ways, each person can help the world.

We tested different activities such as a repair café, a circular economy event, a school visit to the Year 1 class and more recently, an Eco Christmas Market. They have all proved very successful indeed and received very positive feedback from the community.

This year we want the Toy Swap to be more than just children swapping toys, we want to bring in more people and not just people with children. So we have been thinking about things that can complement the environmental and sustainability aspects of Toy Swap and of Eddington. February’s Toy Swap will include a screening of the short film “Waterlight: A Journey Down the River Mel” with a discussion about local water courses afterwards. It’s a wonderful film and I thought it would be great for the people at Eddington to get to know it and so people without children can still come along and learn something.

As well as the Toy Swap events, I run the monthly Eddington Hour radio show on Cambridge 105. I thought there is so much going on at Eddington that people don’t know about and it would be good if we could spread the word.

It’s very important that the community are creating more events, programmes and activities in Eddington to draw people out of their flats so they are not isolated. Having a community heart in Eddington is really important, especially as people come here from everywhere. The Eddington community is so diverse, people come with so many experiences and so many different points of view. We all live in one world and it’s the only world we have, so it’s great to share it and get to know different cultures. It also opens up your own mind so you can see cultural differences, which helps with international understanding in the long-term.

We would love to see these events and activities grow, and if more people in the community want to come and volunteer for the Eddington Hour radio show or the Toy Swaps it’s a great way to get out and meet people at Eddington. If people want to get involved they can email me on eddingtonhour@gmail.com (for the radio) or atoyslifeandbeyond@gmail.com (for Toy Swaps).

• Book onto the February Toy Swap film screening here