AN INSPIRATIONAL anti-litter campaigner who runs activities across the county said she was ‘truly blown away’ to receive a British Empire Medal in the King’s Birthday Honours for the work she does.
Karen Blanchfield, from Stourport, is a Keep Britain Tidy ambassador, a Wyre Forest Scout Leader and founder of the Droitwich-based Little Litter Warriors.
She said she was absolutely delighted when she found out about her award.
“A letter arrived from the Cabinet Office stating that I had been recommended to His Majesty The King for the honour of the BEM for services to environmental education and that the Prime Minister had endorsed the award.
“I had to read it a few times and, when the news finally sank in, I was truly blown away and honoured.”
How it began
Karen said it all started for her when she and her daughter Chloe – who was ten at the time – first participated in the Great British Spring Clean in 2019.
“Chloe was very concerned about the impact of litter on animals and, as a mother, I felt compelled to address her anxiety positively.
“I realised that littering behaviours were not improving despite clean-up efforts, so I started volunteering in schools and community groups.”
Karen conducted engaging litter workshops to show children how people could work together to ‘love where they lived’ and ‘look after communities’.
“During the lockdown, I developed an educational resource for schools called the Little Litter Warriors programme, which was commissioned by Wychavon District Council for their 63 schools.”
The programme includes litter workshops, classroom activities, and educational materials, focusing on litter management and plastic pollution, with an aim to expand the Adopt a Street scheme.
The workshops are designed for children to collect litter, examine each material and observe how long it has been in the environment. They are also tasked with looking into the harm it may have caused to the wildlife and learning how to integrate their daily waste packaging materials into the circular waste movement.
Karen said: “I have delivered assembly presentations across numerous schools, classroom activities and hundreds of litter workshops educating more than 24,000 children about caring for their local environment in our wonderful Worcestershire communities.
“This grassroots programme empowers young people to become environmental stewards in their communities.”
Since February this year, Malvern District Council is now on board, enabling another 42 schools to join the anti-litter campaign free of charge.
