(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — This week's Difference Maker is SCARCE, located in suburban Addison, takes what's old and makes it new — and sustainable.
Kay McKeen is the founder of SCARCE, which stands for School and Community and Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education.
“Books are scarce for kids around the world,” McKeen said. “Clean water is scarce, healthy air, healthy soil, so it has kind of two meanings. We do a lot of education, and we do a lot of rescuing.”
When McKeen says they do a lot of rescuing at SCARCE, she means it. THe organization is a gold mine of donated school books and other school supplies, such as paper, scissors, crayons, musical instruments, and just about anything that can be saved and used for teaching.
We spent some time looking over musical instruments.
“Unfortunately, a lot of schools have to charge rent for instruments,” McKeen said. “[At] some of the schools, it's $40 per month to rent a trumpet. If you don't have food, you are not renting an instrument.”
She said they repair instruments and get them to schools.
SCARCE also repurposes or recycles native plants, globes, wine corks, bicycles, records, chairs, medicine bottles, and Christmas lights. The list — and the shelves — go on and on at the 18,900-square-foot facility, which gives things a second life and helps people and the planet.
“If you're cleaning out [your] great-grandmother's house, you are not going to find nine places to take things,” McKeen said. “We don't need [a lot of these items], but we don't want them in the garbage. You're trying to do the right thing, but you have only so much time; you have your family; you have your life; you have your work. If we can help you do the right thing, then we can save resources and help somebody else.”
As McKeen took us around SCARCE, she kept a smile on her face, as did the employees and volunteers as they busied themselves discovering new purposes in old things.
It was a sunny day when WBBM was there, and McKeen said that even as they do serious work, it's important to always be “making it fun.”
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