Three-year-old helps Helipads for Hospitals’ fill Big Red Bin in Bourne Corn Exchange car park

A three-year-old boy has waged a war against litter in Bourne to help the town look towards a cleaner future.

Calvin Pratt from Bourne has been taking to the streets more than four times a week to collect litter which is polluting the town.

He has spent a significant amount of time picking up aluminium cans and depositing them in the Helipads for Hospitals’ Big Red Bin in the Bourne Corn Exchange car park.

The Big Red Bin was donated to the town by the Rotary Club of Bourne with assistance from Bourne Inner Wheel ladies and Bourne Round Table as a collection point for any aluminium cans and clean foil, which are then sent for smelting and onwards to the charity Helipads for Hospitals.

Aimee Stocker, Calvin’s mum, has been helping Calvin with his litter picking mission.

She said: “We’ve always been the type of family that picks things up if we see them and when the rotary club installed its can collection point, he got really interested.

“He likes taking them and soon he wanted to go out and actively find them.”

She added: “It’s a bit like a treasure hunt.

“It’s a challenge to find them.”

Calvin, who has put thousands of cans in the Big Red Bin, is also encouraging his friends and family to get involved with the mission.

“At least four times a week, he has my husband and I out collecting litter and wherever we walk he has us walk a different route home in case he can find something else,” said Aimee.

“We’re both keen runners and now have to take carrier bags with us to carry any cans we should find on the way, plus he has me now collecting every lunchtime from work too.

“We’ve now invested in litter picking sticks as he’s not satisfied if we cannot reach something and I’m sure he’s doing a good job at supplementing the work which South Kesteven litter pickers already do.”

Members of Bourne Rotary Club, the Inner Wheel and Bourne Round Table were taken aback by Calvin’s dedication.

On Saturday (December 5) the presidents of the respective groups presented Calvin with a certificate of recognition and a book token to thank him for the hard work.

Chris Wood of Bourne Rotary Club said: “Calvin, by collecting in excess of 100 cans each week, is not only helping to keep Bourne tidy but he is making a valuable contribution towards saving lives.”

He added that ‘if Calvin can do it, we all can’.