Bottles by the thousands arrived at The Beer Store here last weekend for the annual two-day Returns for Leukemia fundraiser.
Store manager Craig Nelson said on Monday volunteers netted $1,099 for their weekend of work.
“It was a really good weekend,” he said.
Store employee and team captain Amanda Fisher said in an interview all kinds of bottles were welcome. Beer cans and bottles are worth ten cents each, and The Beer Store can obtain 20 cents for each wine and liquor bottle. Those, too, have a deposit on them at the point of purchase.
“Right now, we’re looking at a lot of units,” Fisher said with a big smile, surveying piles of bottles stacked neatly all over a section of the parking lot, with volunteers busy collecting and piling them.
Beer bottles can be used up to 15 times, with some breweries like Sleeman’s paying an extra premium because their bottles have special engraving, she said. Wine and whiskey bottles are smashed, melted down and remade into bottles for use again.
“Everything is recyclable,” Fisher said.
All the money raised goes to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada, Fisher said.
Besides all the bottles, which threatened to overwhelm a large truck, there was also a charity barbecue on May 26 and Fisher said a lot of people made cash donations.
She explained that last year, as a new employee at The Beer Store, she assisted at the event. This year she took charge of it. She thanked all the volunteers, particularly her father, Bob, and Mac Hardy.
Fisher also thanked Zehrs Markets for donating all the food for the barbecue.
