Maple Ridge Community Foundation collecting bottle donations

Maple Ridge Community Foundation is fundraising again through bottle donations for their community chest.

The organization has put together a “Return-It for a good cause” fundraiser and asking people to donate their bottles and cans towards the foundation’s community chest, a joint project between Maple Ridge Community Foundation and the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Katzie Community Network.

Kevin Nosworthy, a board member for the Maple Ridge Community Foundation and co-chair of the community chest said that since the pandemic, the foundation has been trying to reinvent the way they raise funds.

Through community chest, the foundation provides emergency funds for families and individuals in crisis. Since November 2016, the foundation has contributed to 11 families through the community chest, who were faced with challenges such as transportation issues, equipment issues such as providing eye glasses and work boots, hydro payment or assistance with paying a portion of rent, assistance with daycare fees, dental fees, etc.

“If a single mother, who is basically earning just enough to help ends meet, suddenly has a brake failure, now this means she can’t get to work, which means she loses the job, and the family could end up on the streets. So the woman can apply to the foundation not for a loan, but to help fix the brakes. The foundation will pay upto $1,000 towards her brake repairs and pay the money to the mechanic directly. That’s just one example of how the community chest money can help someone in the community,” he said.

The return-it fundraisers were started a year-and-a-half back and to date, the foundation has managed to return 2,991 empties, and raised over $2,800.

“People don’t always have money to donate but they do have empties. So if they are able to donate it towards the foundation, they can end up helping the community,” said Nosworthy.

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To give towards this cause, people can get their supplies by emailing returnit@mrcf.ca. The foundation will then send a label and a clear plastic bag. Alternatively, people can also chose to use their own clear plastic bag and print their label at the depot using the code 604-551-8593.

People won’t need to sort their empties.

Once they have placed their empties in the clear plastic bag with the label, they can drop off the bag at either the Pitt Meadows Return-It location at 19090 Lougheed Hwy., the Maple Ridge location at 20475 Lougheed Hwy., or the Haney location at 22935 Lougheed Hwy.

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