Boy Scout Troop 4 in the News

October 22, 2020: Scouts' can drive yields 20,000 returnables and a challenge

AMESBURY – Local Boy Scouts have been dutifully collecting cans and bottles and redeeming them as a fundraiser for years. But the restrictions that came with the coronavirus pandemic created a challenge they hadn’t been expecting.

For Troop 4, sponsored by the Market Street Baptist Church, recycling is a project they adhere to, according to Scoutmaster Ron Fuller. Over the course of the year the troop holds a number of returnable bottle and can drives using the money to pay for leadership training for the boy leaders in the troop.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit this year, all training was cancelled for the youth training programs. So, Fuller said, the Scouts decided to use the money collected for a local charity and picked Our Neighbors’ Table in Amesbury. The Scouts also support ONT through the Scouting for Food Drive every fall.

As Fuller related it, on a day in the spring the Scouts set up the two-hour collection time in the Upper Millyard in Amesbury, assuming it would take place as usual. Word went out through The Daily News and social media that the drive would take place and all proceeds would go to ONT.

What the Scouts did not realize was that people had been in “lockdown” at home for a couple of months and that the recycling center had been down.

“The cars started to line up early to turn in returnables and they did not stop,” Fuller said in an email. “As the Scouts started to count and bag the items, the flatbed trailer was loaded and the first run was made to the recycling center. They were closed and now the Scouts were faced with what to do with thousands of returnables.”

For hours the cars kept pulling up and the Scouts pulled bags full of returnable bottles and cans out. Fuller said word went out to parents, alumni of the troop and anyone else that could possibly help to bag them. When the day was over, the Scouts had collected more than 20,000 returnables. With the recycling center closed, the questions became what to do with all the bags of bottles and cans, so they were taken to troop members’ houses to store. But the Scouts still needed a way to recycle them.

Over the next three months the recycling center started to receive just cans and later bottles in limited amounts; the final load was taken recently, wrapping up an unexpectedly long, but fruitful, can drive.

At a recent meeting of the troop, those involved with the project presented Lesley Fawcett, a representative of Our Neighbors’ Table, with a check for $1,000 to help with their efforts.

“It was a massive collection project, supported by the residents of Amesbury and surrounding towns and one that one Scout mentioned was fun to use as a project to help others in these difficult times,” Fuller wrote.

He said that the Scouts are preparing for the next can drive and will be ready to take on such a project.

Source: https://www.newburyportnews.com/news/local_news/scouts-can-drive-yields-20-000-returnables-and-a-challenge/article_b569833d-1691-527b-a2c5-30af401ede7c.html