Full credit to the staff at the Blue Heron Bottle Depot for their remarkable accomplishment from the Stollery Children’s Hospital fundraising drive they’ve been involved with over the past few months.
The fundraiser involved bottle depots from all over the province, but it was the little ol’ Athabasca depot that raised the most money of all of them — $7,470.86 to be exact — which amazingly comprised a full 10 per cent of all the funds generated province-wide.
It causes one to speculate just how it is that a small, rural bottle depot would be able to so dramatically outperform all others, including those located in larger urban centres.
After all, raising close to $7,500 would be impressive enough if you were collecting a buck or two at a time. But in the case of this fundraiser, bottle depot patrons were asked only to donate the refundable deposit on a single beverage bottle: 25 cents.
Undoubtedly, some patrons generously volunteered to donate more, but they probably only did so because the bottle depot staff excelled at politely requesting virtually every single patron to donate “just one bottle.”
Perhaps other bottle depots weren’t as diligent at soliciting donations, and they certainly couldn’t have been more courteous about it than the Blue Heron staff were.
Much credit also goes, of course, to all the patrons who so generously donated a portion of the ‘found money’ that bottle refunds usually provide — particularly those who exceeded the “just one bottle” request.
We’ll assume, however, that the staggering difference in fundraising totals between Edmonton and Athabasca does not reflect a similar difference in consumption patterns of alcohol and carbonated beverages. It must be all the milk we drink that makes the difference, right?
In the end, everybody wins. The Stollery Hospital gets a sizeable donation, the Blue Heron Bottle Depot staff have earned a well-deserved award, and Athabasca-area residents have once again demonstrated their legendary generosity. Well done.
