Children’s choir, Tempo Tweensing, raises money through drink container deposits to spread song to the community
Tempo Tweensing is a community choir based in Asker, Norway, that offers weekly choir activities for children from grades four to seven. Started in 2001, the choir began with the aim of creating a positive environment in which tweens (children between 10 and 13 years of age), could express themselves through song, develop their musical skills, make new friends, and socialize.
With their weekly practices, Tempo Tweensing is always preparing for their next performance. The choir holds multiple concerts a year, whether it be performances during Asker’s church services, their annual summer concert, or Christmas caroling during December. Tempo Tweensing has even become part of Asker’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony every year.
Turning bottles into dreams
In addition to their concerts and weekly gatherings, Tempo Tweensing organizes yearly trips for their members to cities both in Norway and abroad. The goal of these trips is to provide the children with a rich cultural experience and give them a chance to bond with other choir members. And the trip always involves music in some way. With either impromptu or official concerts taking place wherever they go, the trips have been dubbed “Tempo on Tour”.
The choir receives funding from Asker Church as well as KFUK-KFUM Global, a Norwegian independent development aid and solidarity organization. To raise more funds for activities and trips, Tempo Tweensing has in the past organized various fundraising activities, such as selling gift cards, baked goods and apple juice, and holding cake lotteries in shopping malls.
When the pandemic started in 2020, the choir switched to collecting drink containers from local families. With these donations, Tempo Tweensing was able to turn bottles into dreams with inspiring trips to Mandalselva, in the south of Norway, and to Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden.
Help from TOMRA
TOMRA’s headquarters are in Asker, Norway, meaning TOMRA and Tempo Tweensing are connected through community. Being part of both organizations, Tempo Tweensing mom and TOMRA employee, Kristin, had the bright idea to encourage her co-workers to donate their drink containers in support of her daughter’s choir.
As a result, a large crate was placed in Café Matro, TOMRA’s canteen, where TOMRA employees could donate their used beverage containers. The initiative ran for three months, with a total of 515 bottles and cans were donated.
After the initiative ended, Kristin and her daughters filled bags with the donated containers and brought them to a local supermarket to cash in the deposit donations. At the supermarket, they poured all the bottles into a TOMRA R1 reverse vending machine and soon saw they had raised 1,074 NOK for Tempo Tweensing’s next trip to Hamar, thanks to TOMRA employees.
By supporting Tempo Tweensing, TOMRA and the Asker community help to drive recycling, and also support a social environment for the children that is filled with laughter, play and friendship – which Tempo Tweensing uses to spread joy to others in the community through song.
