Bottle Drive

What?

We typically have two bottle drives a year and all Sections participate. The one in the fall goes towards general revenue and the one in the spring one goes towards a Jamboree Fund for the next Provincial or Canadian Jamboree.

Flyers are distributed door to door a week or so ahead of the pickup. They typically ask to put out a bag with the flyer taped to it. We meet at the school and each vehicle takes a route and a couple of kids. It is important to knock on every door and explain that you are collecting bottles and cans for Scouts. Even though we distribute the flyers, half the people ignore the flyer or forget to put out a bag of cans. Some people even make a cash donation on the spot!

The bottles are returned to the Herbert Spencer parking lot where a team sorts them into large bins – alcohol vs. non-alcohol. The Sapperton Return-It Depot supplies the bins, picks them up, counts them and gives us a cheque for a nominal fee. We usually collect enough bottles to fill in the order of 20 bins. In the past we have used other companies with no fee, but you need to sort all the items by type and count them. It takes forever and the nominal fee is well worth it!

We have an account (#472) at the Sapperton Return-It Depot at 79 Braid Street. You can drop off bottles there and put the proceeds towards the Scouts account. If you forget the number, it is on a piece of paper above the cash register or they can look it up for you. You do have to sort the bottles out by type though.

Where?

The sorting occurs in the underground parking lot of Herbert Spencer School.

To book the Herbert Spencer School parking area, email Leah at the School District at facilityrentals@sd40.bc.ca or call her at 604-517-6324. In the past, we have had to get permission from Iqbal Lalany at the Scouts office. His email is ilalany@scouts.ca. However, the last time we used the Herbert Spencer parking area, Leah said we didn't need to show our certificate of insurance again, since we were also using the gym at Glenbrook. If we don't need to show the certificate of insurance, the process is much simpler. Someone will need to pick up the key at the school before the school closes for Christmas. The staff there are accustomed to the process - just go to the school office and they normally give you a key with a huge key chain.

Return-It Depot

Tracie is the manager at the Sapperton Return-It Depot. Her email is rmrc200@yahoo.com or she can be reached at (604) 523-9699.

Ray also has worked at the Sapperton Return-It Depot for a long time and he normally drives the truck that does our pick-ups and drop-offs. His cell number is (778) 788-9200.

We need to contact them early in the year, as one year our preferred date was unavailable when we left the decision until late November. Suggest that we confirm with them as soon as we decide on a date, certainly by September.

Firefighters

Sometimes we team up with the Firefighters and collect bottles at their Christmas Tree shredding day in the Canada Games Pool parking lot from 10-3. There are not as many bottles collected at this as the regular drive (maybe six bins over 2 days). We need an adult and two youth to attend both Saturday and Sunday. Need to coordinate with the Firefighters for space there and also to piggyback on the advertising.

The contact we have used at the Fire Fighters is Alasdair Dunbar, adunbar@newwestcity.ca, (778) 384-2491. In mid-November, make contact and confirm that we will be there.

In the past, they have been so kind to share a canopy/cover with us. They expect that we will be available and participating for both days and they really like to have youth, especially Beavers and Cubs, assisting with the donation collection. When the kids hold the boot, they tend to get more cash for the firefighters. The youth are NOT to touch the money in the boots. When we set this arrangement up, the firefighters insisted that Scouts only collect bottles and that we don't accept cash donations at the event. We have complied with that every year.

The firefighters also require that they receive a copy of Scouts insurance certificate. We need to have this sent from Iqbal Lalaly at the Scout head office. He has taken care of this in the past and is quite formal about it, so it's a good idea to have Michael Hamilton ask for it. As long as you have a city email for the firefighter organizer, that will be adequate as a destination for the certificate.

On the day of the event, usually, you need to have someone get set up around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings and the event closes down around 3:00 p.m. On Sunday, no need to get there until 11:00 a.m. Same 3:00 p.m. finish.

The weather typically brutal. Scouter Mary Hausch has always been a trooper though for this event. In the past, she has taken care of the station for all of Saturday and monitored the kids at the same time. She is awesome at this and I can't imagine this event without her. I'm pretty sure she will say yes if you ask for her help. Otherwise, ask parents to sign up for two hour shifts. The firefighters have told us in the past that anyone who works at the event, kids included, is welcome to free hot dogs and pop. There is no expectation that they give a donation. The kids can fill up on junk and go home sick without ever having to drop any coin at the event. They tend to think that's quite a good thing.

On Sunday, we don’t get many bottles, and we have found that simply bringing the Scout trailer and parking it there for the day and hauling the bottles to the Sapperton Return-It Depot directly is the easiest solution.

Advertising

Need to coordinate what routes we are doing and estimate the number of flyers to print. In the past Dave Jeffs (member of the Friends of New Westminster Scouting) has provided the printing free through Comfort Graphics or at a nominal cost.

The flyers should be delivered door to door by our volunteers. We have distributed the flyers via Canada Post a few times, but it is quite expensive. A few kids can cover a lot of group dropping off flyers.

We need to coordinate with the firefighters to piggyback on their advertising.

Contact the Record to get into the City Pages. This can likely be done online.

Call the City’s main number and ask for the person to put advertising on the sign at 6th and McBride. It is totally free. We ask them to keep our information up from Dec. 1 to the event and they are usually fine with that.

To put an ad in the City Page, email Ashleigh Young at ayoung@newwestcity.ca or (604) 527-4559. Suggested wording is: I'm writing with information about the 12th New Westminster Scouts bottle drive planned for Jan. xx and xx, 20xx. Could you please add this information to the City calendar on the City Website and the City Page?

January x and xx, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Canada Games Pool Parking Lot
12th New Westminster Scouts Bottle Drive
Start the New Year by clearing out your holiday bottles and cans. Bring them with your Christmas tree to the New West Firefighters' Fire Safety Festival or for pickup, emailscoutsbottlepickup@live.ca. Your donation of returnables will help Scouts continue to bring adventure, outdoor experience and friendship to New Westminster youth.
Thank you!


Next bottle drive to do:

• Review the route maps and ensure the entire neighbourhoods are covered.
• Create route maps for any missing areas.
• Count the houses per route map so we know how many flyers are required.

Need someone to organize the event. This includes the following:

• Send a common email to all Section leaders to distribute.
• Contact the Sapperton Return-It Depot and book date.
• Coordinate with the firefighters and coordinate advertising.
• Book the Herbert Spencer School parking garage to sort.
• Request insurance from Iqbal Lalaly at Scout office.
• Pick up the key before the Herbert Spencer School closes for Christmas.
• Decide which routes we are doing. In 2015-2016, we decide on Glenbrook North, Massey Victory Heights, and Kelvin North.
• Invite the Guild to participate.
• Copy the maps of the preset routes.
• Organize for advertising in the newspaper City Pages.
• Organize for advertising on the City calendar.
• Design and print the flyers
• Coordinate door-to-door flyer delivery. Usually done by Venturers, Scouts, and Scouters.

Someone to bring items from the locker for the main bottle drive:

• Crab cooker, propane stove, propane tree, and propane.
• Large pot, and ladle.
• Lighter or matches
• Folding plastic table and at least one of the aluminum tables.
• Tea towels for cleanup.
• Garbage bags.
• Gloves for bottle sorters.
• Bring a couple of folding chairs from home too for the Guild members to sit on while handing out hot dogs and hot chocolate.

Someone to bring items from the locker for the Canada Games Pool part of the bottle drive:

• Pop up shelters.
• Park the trailer at the Canada Games Pool on Sunday (use it to drive around on Saturday).

Someone needs to buy:

• About 100 Hot dogs and buns.
• Condiments.
• Two large cans of Hot chocolate (usually there isn't any in the locker).
• Paper cups (usually there aren't many in the locker).
• Napkins (usually there aren't many in the locker).