Friends who met at drama school have started their own eco-friendly children’s party company in Royston.
Kate Gwynn - who is from the town - and Vicky Sheldon's firm, Over the Rainbow Parties, aims to reduce waste and be 'environmentally responsible'.
Kate said: "Both myself and Vicky met at drama school and we started our first company Divergent Drama shortly after graduating.
"After three years of providing primary schools with drama-based educational workshops, running our own Saturday school in Royston and working as children's party entertainers, the requests kept pilling up and we decided to take the plunge and set up our own party company.
"We realised how much waste there often was from parties and we really wanted to create a company that was more sustainable, especially with CO2 emissions and plastic waste at an all-time high, so we started Over the Rainbow Parties - the home of eco-friendly parties."
The firm is a small party company that aims to reduce waste and be environmentally responsible. They use reusable or biodegradable glitter, non-toxic face paints for glitter tattoos, fairtrade sweets that only contain sustainable - or no - palm oil sourced ethically, reusable sustainable materials for games, eco-friendly bubble liquid, and stamps to receive a prize or sweets instead of plastic prizes.
Kate said: "I have always loved running kids parties but I started to notice how much waste they create and the amount of perishables that contain non-sustainable palm oil.
"As a vegan who likes to know where my food is sourced, I hated the idea of contributing to deforestation and therefore we talked about ways we could try and ensure we were an environmentally aware company, then the eco-initiative of Over the Rainbow Parties was formed."
Vicky added: "I feel like it's really important in this day and age to be more eco-focused.
"My nieces and nephews are learning all about the environment at school and are really conscious of looking after it.
"Their concerns have rubbed off on me and I'm so pleased to combine my love of entertaining children with my desire to run a sustainable company."
For more information, go to www.overtherainbowparties.com.
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