Samantha Vance, a fourth grader at Haley Elementary School, started Buddy Benches almost a year ago. She wanted to create a place where students could come sit if they needed a friend and didn’t want to be lonely.

Now a year later, she received a $500 donation from Sodexo The Performance Zone, which will go to more benches to give to schools in the area. 

150 Walgreens stores have been collecting caps for Sammie, as announced on the Today show. They’re estimating 15,000 pounds of caps collected, which is enough for 75 benches. Sammie’s mother Heidi told NewsChannel 15 those benches will be placed around Indiana, so they’re looking for schools interested in getting one of the benches.

These benches are made completely from caps and lids, and come from a total of 400 pounds of the recycled material. You can donate anything from water bottle caps, to peanut butter lids, to deodorant caps.

If you want to give monetarily to help Samantha, you can go to her go fund me page.

You can also join her Facebook Group “Sammie’s Buddy Bench Project group. There you can find a full list of what caps can be donated and where you can drop off your donations! 

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