19 for School

19 - that's the number of box tops I collected yesterday and today, along with 5 milk caps, and a Campbell's soup label. For our local elementary school, that equals $2.15 - plus whatever the soup label is worth. Maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, but every little bit helps. It still really bothers me to see how people just throw away money that could be helping the school. Every week, on trash day, I collect whatever I see out of people's recycle bins. I just can't stand to see those box tops, milk caps, and labels going to waste. Why can't people just collect them? Even if they don't have kids in the school, I bet they have a neighbor who does. They wouldn't even have to drop them off at the school, just give them to the neighbor kid.

I'm just collecting things on my regular walking route, so I know there are so many more labels and such in the rest of the village. Imagine what we could do if our entire community saved everything. Why should it just be the families with kids in the school? It shouldn't. Really, it shouldn't, but I just don't know how to get people to care and participate. I think I got one lady, though. I was walking by her house as she was leaving for work yesterday, and I stopped to pull 3 box tops out of her recycle bin. This morning she was waiting for me with 2 more! She says her school doesn't collect them so she's going to start saving them for me. Maybe she just never thought of it before. Maybe most people just never thought of it before - the fact that they can help their local school in a big way, and it won't cost them anything. After all, they are already buying the products. All they have to do is remove the box top or label or milk cap and save it instead of throwing it away.

Perhaps if the school handed out a collection bag to every house in the community? Something. I mean, the kids are always expected to go out and raise funds by selling things that no one really needs anyway. People buy the stuff because 'it's for a good cause' and they want to support the kids. Why not go around, this time not selling anything, but just letting people know they can raise funds for the school without having to buy anything extra? Write down the names of the neighbors who agree to save things and set a date to collect them. It could really add up.

In our area, these are the items to save:

• BoxTops4Education
• Campbell's Label's for Education - take note that they want UPCs now instead of the labels.
• Kids, Caps & Cash (Golden Guernsey and Morning Glory)
• Nickels for Schools (Kemps)
• Nestlé Pure Life Go Play!

I admit that I don't collect all of the water labels because they do not come off the bottles very easily, so it's not very convenient to take them out of the recycle bins. I also hate to admit that one year I collected all the Campbell's labels the old way (just the front part of the label) only to find out that they wanted UPCs now. I felt really bad. At least I tried, but still - all those UPCs wasted.