News : Cans for Kids: A huge success

Mike Elwick works on the cans in the Cans for Kid shed.

Alan Woodhouse is one of the Cans for Kids volunteers.

Way back in the year of 2001, Vinton had a little dilemma on their hands. The last of the Redemption Centers had closed their doors. This meant the only places you could take those nickel refundable cans & bottles were the grocery stores and convenience stores. A good friend bounced the idea off of me to have the Park & Recreation Department collect cans & bottles from the community and use these funds collected for our youth programs. So that’s how Cans for Kids got started!

There are a lot of people out there that don’t mind bagging or boxing up their cans and bottles but they aren’t too keen on running them through a machine or waiting to have them counted. They are also a lot of people that love to help out the youth of our communities.

Since the inception of this program in 2001, the VPRD has averaged between $3,000 - $4,000 dollars per year. We have two drop spots for residents to bring their cans & bottles, one being the Vinton Recreation Center and the other our Park Maintenance Building located just north of the pool on 8th Avenue. We also we pick up larger quantities for businesses or residents all over the community.

After we receive the bags of cans and bottles, we separate to bags of plastic bottles, cans and boxes of glass products. The one good thing is we currently have two great volunteers, Alan Woodhouse and Mike Elwick, that love to spend time together and don’t mind doing the sorting job because they love to help out our community. We recently moved in a new building into our park shop area thanks to these individuals, donations took care of the cost of the new “Can Shed.”

Every two weeks, a company comes in and removes all of the separated bags and boxes. We receive four and a half cents per bottle or can and within a couple of weeks we get our check from the company. Sounds pretty basic and easy, well it really is that simple.

Listed below are some of the items that have been purchased with the funds that we have received from this program:

Soccer Goals, nets & equipment

Scrimmage Vests, balls & equipment for all sports

Tennis Ball Machine

Adjustable Basketball Wall Mount Set for Recreation Center

Two new glass Backboards for the Recreation Center

Annually prizes for Winter Carnival & Special Events

Little League Equipment & bags

Playground Equipment

Volleyball Equipment

Hershey Track Meet ribbons and equipment

Tot Lot riding equipment and toys

The list goes on and on of all of the different programs that the Cans for Kids program has been taking care of for over 12 years. Thank you to all of you that have made this venture such a big success and we hope you continue to support our efforts. The positive part of this program is that it allows us to do so much for the thousands of participants annually that take part in sports programs, arts & craft programs, special events and also those that use our facilities throughout the community.

If at any time you have any questions about this program or any of our programs or facilities, give us a call at 472-4164 or stop by the Vinton Recreation Center to talk with one of our staff. Remember, you can always go online to find out what is going on with the Vinton Parks & Recreation Department at vprdzone.com.