Article featured in the New Castle Courier
Times, February 3, 2003.
Recycling project
nets over 60,000 Christmas cards
By Darrel Radford
Managing Editor
dradford@thecouriertimes.com
Grandmas are among the
greatest blessings a child can have. They make great cookies, they tell the most
interesting stories and give the greatest hugs. As five-year-old New Castle
resident Chaylynn Turney recently discovered, they are also quite good at
collecting things.
Her grandma, Denise Dean, got together with other grandmas and grandpas at
Raintree Square recently and collected Christmas cards to help with a preschool
class project.
A total of 4,179 cards to be exact.
Chaylynn took those to her Agape Learning Center preschool class, and that made
it winner of a contest in the Henry County Healthy Communities recycling
card project.
The class was honored earlier this week with a pizza party to celebrate the
accomplishment and the unbelievable success the project had countywide this
year.
In all at least 70,000 cards were collected on behalf of St. Jude's Ranch for
Children, a non-profit, non-sectarian home for abused, abandoned and neglected
children of all races and faiths.
Children there take the used cards, cut out the artwork, and make new greeting
cards. They receive 15 cents per each acceptable card made, which is divided
between their savings and their college fund. The money also provides help for
special group outings and gives kids a little extra pocket money.
The lessons learned and blessings earned matched the number of cards collected,
according to those involved with the project.
Angie Buck, teacher of Agape's winning class, said the children learned about
the importance of giving and the value of recycling.
Helping the kids energized the senior citizens at Raintree Square as well,
according to Dot Johnson, the supervisor for Denise Dean.
"They found out Denise was collecting for her granddaughter and each
resident brought them to the kitchen here," she said.
"You know how they don't like to throw anything away," Denise said of
the Raintree Square residents. "They all know my granddaughter because she
comes out here a lot."
In fact, Chaylynn has been a part of the Raintree Square family ever since she
was born. Denise talked about how Chaylynn's mother, Cara Williams, would bring
her out to the facility for a visit when she was just a baby.
"My daughter would come out and have lunch with me, and they just all fell
in love with Chaylynn," Denise said.
Once the word got out who was trying to collect cards, the project snowballed.
"We put a box over in support services," Denise said. "The cards
just started coming and coming and coming. I had one staff member bring me over
300 cards."
The effort at Agape was just one of several similar collections across Henry
County. Sunnyside was the champion of elementary school collection sites,
turning in over 10,000 cards for recycling. Other local schools who took part
included Eastwood, Riley, Wilbur Wright, Westwood, Tri and Spiceland elementary
schools.
Andi Richter and Sheila Marion, co-chairs of the project on behalf of Healthy
Communities, were amazed at the response this year.
"I met an elderly lady who had been saving them for years," Marion
said. "She was thankful she had some place to give them."
"It's been amazing," Richter said. "You know, you don't want to
throw away a greeting card. This gives them new life."
The Three Rivers Solid Waste District has volunteered to pay the postage needed
to send the big batch of cards on its way to St. Judes.
The project was one of many for Healthy Communities this past year and is
expected to be even bigger next year. For more information about Healthy
Communities, visit their web.
