This Boston College Student is Collecting Your Empty Cans for His Marathon Fundraising Efforts
Brendon Anderson is tapping into his college campus’ resources to raise money for charity.
For many college students, nothing says celebrating Patriots’ Day quite like “kegs and eggs’’ and divvying up a 30 rack between friends.
Boston College senior Brendon Anderson is running the marathon, so he won’t be drinking beers, but he is asking his friends to save him some. Not some beer—just some empties.
On Tuesday, Anderson will drive all around Boston to pick up bottles and cans from friends, neighbors, and basically anyone who finds themselves with piles of empties post-Marathon Monday.
“I haven’t heard of anyone else doing this,’’ Anderson said. “People have a surprised reaction or don’t completely understand the scale of it.’’
He’ll take the cans to the Allston Redemption Center, where he’s already driven about 30 carloads full of cans over the past few weeks in exchange for handfuls of nickels. He’s raised about $2,000 so far for the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center.
The Center has been deemed one of five legacy charities by the Boston Athletic Association, meaning official numbers are given out to runners who pledge money to the charity. The Center provides families of people with mental disabilities an emotional and physical break from their nonstop responsibilities.
“It’s such an amazing place, and something that’s been important to me throughout my life,’’ Anderson said. He supported the center when he ran last year’s marathon, and has worked closely with special needs children from his own family, high school, and camps.
Anderson has to raise money for the charity in order to run, but with a network mostly comprised of cash-strapped college students, he had to be creative in how he secured donations.
“I just noticed, on the weekends, cans lined outside,’’ he said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, that’s an easy way, if a friend has a party, to get the cans and recycle them.’’’
Through these fundraising efforts, Anderson has been able to combine his support for the center with recycling, an interest that has grown by what he’s learned through this experience.
“I always thought Boston was a green city, but in terms of recycling, we can do so much better,’’ he said. Boston recycles about 20 percent of its residential waste, whereas cities like Seattle and San Jose surpass 60 percent, Douglas Zook, Boston University’s director of the Global Ecology Education Initiative, recently wrote. Anderson has started recycling at every opportunity.
“At a party, I probably sound so strange: ‘Excuse me, can you make sure you put your cans in a bag for me because that would be really nice,’’’ said Anderson. “It’s a weird place to talk about both fundraising and environmental issues.’’
Anderson lives on campus with five other guys, and said he does feel bad for his roommates because empty cans are always littered throughout their apartment. Not to mention, the beer stench lingers.
“It’s a funny experience,’’ he said.
But his recylcing efforts aren’t over. Anderson thinks that people will keep giving him cans long after the third Monday in April, but he’s OK with that. He’ll continue to recycle them, he said, to keep donating to the center.
“I think that’s something really special for a lot of these charities—the marathon keeps them going,’’ Anderson said. “To have a continued supply of funds makes so much more of a difference.’’
Read more coverage of the 2015 Boston Marathon.
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