Staff Writer
FORT FAIRFIELD — While the state of the economy has been arguably toughest on non-profit organizations, Tri-Community Recycling and Sanitary Landfill is offering the same fund-raising opportunity to all non-profits as it consistently has in the past.
Contributed photo/John Powers
The Caribou Boy Scout Troop 184 is thankful to have been given the opportunity by the Tri Community Landfill to raise money for their trip to the 2010 National Boy Scout Jamboree in Virginia. Landfill staff gave the Scouts the task of cleaning up the debris blown throughout the tree lines surrounding the landfill and they were paid on a per-hour basis for each Scout and leader present, as they do for any non profit organization. Participating in the Scouting fund raiser were, from left, back row: Kevin Keaton, Mark Draper, Jessie Paige helping his friends, Alex Murchison, Daniel Powers, Keith Draper, Jared Keaton, Jacob Beaupre and Ken Murchison. In front are: James Doucette, Andrew Wasson, Scout Master Vaughn Keaton and Rick Wasson. John Powers is absent from the photo.
“Any nonprofit organization that wants to come out and help us pick up windblown litter at the site, currently we offer $5 per person per hour,” explained Director of the Tri-Community Landfill, Mark Draper. “I usually break it down and say that if you can get 20 people together, that's $100 an hours. The nice thing about it, if you're looking at it from a fund-raiser stand\point, is that you're not dependent on selling tickets or having to make any investment in anything that you're going to sell. It's basically just time and effort and to me, that makes it somewhat attractive [as a fund-raiser],” he added.
Though the Tri-Community Landfill has had a wide variety of non-profit organizations capitalize on the opportunity — Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, youth groups, even chapters of the FFA and the County Patriots — participation has recently decreased.
“I've been here for a little over five years, and there used to be pretty good participation with the program,” Draper said. “Participation has dropped off a little bit, and we're going to be taking a look at that to see if perhaps we can up our offer a little bit. We do still tend to get quite a few phone calls [regarding fund-raising], but that usually doesn't follow through with a lot of groups actually coming, so we have it on the agenda for a meeting with the board of directors coming up to take a look at that to see if [raising the amount earned through fund-raising] is something that we want to do,” Draper added. “We're not seeing the same level of participation, so we're wondering if $5 a person per hour isn't worth it to folks anymore.”
Having laborers from non-profit organizations pitch in at the landfill it beneficial to both parties.
“Picking up litter is a labor-intensive process; we're not staffed in such a way where we can have somebody do that on a regular bases,” explained Draper. “I may have a person who can spend some time picking up litter, but it really is a very labor intensive process, and once they have that task completed, we don't have a lot of other work for them to do. For the amount of money that we spend in making these contributions to a non-profit organization, it's a much more efficient way of spending our money and our resources to get the job done than rather than hiring somebody,” he added.
Whereas fund-raising at the landfill may sound like a dirty job, it isn’t as messy as it sounds.
“95 percent of what fund-raisers are going to be picking up if they come here are Wal-Mart bags, Shop 'N Save bags, and most recently we're seeing a lot of the wood pellet bags, from the wood pellet stoves people are using,” Draper clarified. “From a litter standpoint, plastic bags are a real hassle.”
“I know a lot of people do this already, but if people could stuff 15 or 20 pellet bags into one bag and then throw them away, they’re a lot less likely to blow around because it's heavier,” said Draper. “That would be a big help to us because they tend to blow around otherwise; if people take their Wal-Mart bag and tie it in a knot before they throw it away, it helps prevent it from expanding like a balloon or a parachute and blowing away,” he added. “Both of those things would help us keep the litter from blowing around to begin with.”
“Any organization interested in participating can give me a call at 473-7840,” Draper said. “Often times, groups want to pick up litter on Saturdays or evenings, and that's certainly fine,” he explained, “we can set it up ahead of time. We provide all the bags, rubber gloves and bug spray if necessary,” he added. “If a group wants to come out, they ought to wear proper footwear; Sneakers are ok, but it's better if you have some sort of boots. some areas are wet, you know, and you have to get into the brush and the bushes. beyond that, we'll provide basically everything else they need to do it. If they want to bring their own gloves, and a lot of people do, they'll bring their own gloves. That's really the only investment they need to make, other than the willingness to do it and the time.”
There are no age limitations, although organizations must provide supervision for younger children.
“We ask, obviously, if they’re going to bring very young kids out here, that they provide the supervision,” Draper clarified. “The younger the kids, the more supervision they may need just from a safety standpoint, so that they're not going anywhere that they shouldn't be. We've had some pretty young kids [chipping in]. We will pay the adults like we pay the kids,” he explained. “It's as many people as you can get together. We don't have any specific age limitations as long as they can do the work.”
