Ben’s charity bins
Eight year old has raised over £3,500 with old cloths...
A SMART young boy found a way to turn dirty cloths into fun items to keep sick children entertained.
Benjamin Clark, 8, noticed on his trips to Leicester Royal Infirmary for asthma treatment that there were hardly any toys to play with.
The innovative lad from Peckleton decided to start raising funds to buy some kit for the kids, combining the venture with his love of go kart racing.
At race meetings he goes round and collects microfibre cloths used by engineers to clean the motors, which would otherwise be binned.
He and his family clean the cloths and then sell them to raise funds to buy board games and other toys for the hospital.
So far he’s raised around £3,500 and he presented a trolley load of items to children’s Ward 12.
Ben said it felt “better than Christmas” to be handing over the toys.
Mum Debbie said: “We never imagined it would be raising this much.
“We’ve tried to shop around for the best deals.
“We hope this will make a big difference to enrich their lives.”
Benjamin’s next goal is to provide toys for the Children’s Cancer unit at the hospital, including special items for children who are long-term patients in the hospital.
One kind person already gave an Xbox One to go to one of the children.
Tiger Prints Teamwear provided a bright yellow T-shirt and hoodie for Ben to wear to advertise ‘Ben’s Bins’, matching the yellow bins used to collect the cloths on track days.
The karting community has chipped in with cash and other donations, including some washing powder and stain remover from Monde-Jnr Konini Racing.
The good cause had a £500 boost from proceeds from a charity practice session at the Super One British Championships in Cumbria.
For more information and to see a video of the toy presentation, visit the Benjamin Clark Racing page on Facebook.
You can also make a donation on Ben’s Just Giving page. Ben Clark from Peckleton has been raising money to buy toys for sick children.