St. Mark's Monthly Bottle and Can Drive is Saturday

On the first Saturday of every month, Sue McNamara and a group of St. Mark's school students' parents volunteer their time to the Returnable Bottle and Can Drive.

From 10 am to 2 pm parents, parish members and others from the community will deliver the returnable plastic, glass and metal bottles and cans that they have collected over the past month to St. Mark's school. 

McNamara and the other volunteers then sort and bag the donations and take them to the recycling center to 'cash' them in. Her 84-year-old father volunteered monthly at the drive until he retired from it just last year.

This monthly fundraising event is now in its sixth year. The average raised is $300 per drive and the money goes directly to the school to fund its programs. 

The benefit to this monthly drive is two-fold. Not only is the drive a community effort to support a local school, but it is also a community effort towards recycling and the reduction of our plastic, glass and metal waste.

Most people know that it can take hundreds of years for plastics to completely degrade. In the interim, plastics overflow from landfills and pose potential health risks to the community.

Sue urges the community to "continue to donate any bottles and cans with the 5c markings on it" to the monthly St. Mark's Returnable Bottle and Can Drive.

The drive for the 2010 - 2011 school year will continue until June 6 and then will begin again in the fall when school reopens.

For more information about the drive, check the stratford.patch.com calendar, visit http://www.townofstratford.com/content/1302/3189/3191.aspx or call (203) 375-4291.