Surprises...

7/22/12

We cannot thank you enough for all your help with Cans4Christ! We are so thankful for your donations, prayers, and support as we gather and collect cans for our building campaign!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes we get so many cans we are overwhelmed--in a good way:) And sometimes we find "surprises" in the can bags/donations. Unfortunately, these surprises cannot be recycled.

These "surprises" were found in our last donation pick-up. Sometimes we get full bags of these things. 

Items that we CANNOT recycle: 

• cat food cans
• soup or vegetable cans
• tuna cans
• aluminum foil (although it's "aluminum", it cannot be recycled)
• aluminum/tin cooking containers
• newspapers
• food wrappers, etc.
• juice boxes

So what do we, Cans4Christ, collect??? ALUMINUM CANS! Any aluminum can--soda, pop, tea, etc. We don't care what brand or what liquid it once had inside....we just need CANS:) 

photo credit

Again, we are so thankful that you are giving to our can ministry--and we are thankful that you want to help! So please keep collecting and donating aluminum cans for the First Alliance Church of Port Charlotte, FL building campaign.

If you would like to donate weekly--you can find our Cans4Christ trailer at the FAC campus. Or email us {cans4christ at gmail dot com} to set up a donation pick-up!!! 

Crushing Party!!!!!!!!

7/22/12


Part of the "Canning Clan" gathered today for a small "crushing party". Crushing the cans is super important! If we don't crush the cans--it's hard to stack the bags at the recycling center, and sometimes the cans get full of ants/water/etc. We crush the cans to make sure they are completely empty and properly recycled.

The cans we crush during these parties come from our C4C trailer at FAC, as well as our regular route pick-ups during the week. 

Crushing parties are a lot of work, but super fun. We empty out all the bags and just stomp on all the cans. Sometimes we use the can crusher.

The best part of our crushing parties is getting together for dinner afterwards! Usually we have hot dogs...but this time, I decided to get fancy:) I made some Yumma Setta, salads, and more. I've got to treat my canning friends right or they won't come back to crush:) 

I should share that I'm not the only one who cooks for our canning dinners--Kates made the most amazing deserts for this party! MMMM! 

Miles: none but I bet we crushed close to 1000 cans! 

We Can Be Seen....

7/22/12


Cans4Christ information, pictures, and more can be seen in several locations....

• We have a trailer on the church campus for drop-offs/donations any time of the week. **The C4C trailer is found near the playground and clothes drop-off bin. 

• We can be seen around neighborhoods biking and finding cans along side the road.

• C4C information and pictures can be found in the breezeway/foyer of First Alliance Church Port Charlotte (20444 Midway Blvd., Port Charlotte, FL). 

View this presentation and slideshow each Sunday in the breezeway of FAC. 

• Cans4Christ can also be found on our blog HERE. I enjoy posting what C4C has been up to and all of our adventures canning and crushing.

So there you have it--several ways to find us in the community, at church, and on the web:)


If you would like to follow us through email, fill in the box near the top of our blog. This feature helps you receive notification when we have a new post! 

THANKS so much for stopping by today! THANKS for praying for our can ministry and for collecting your cans for our building campaign! 

A New Friend in the Canning Clan

7/19/12


I called around and found some friends to join in a canning trip today. It was a short trip but super fun! We made new friends in our neighborhood who have donated and want to donate their cans weekly! HOOOOOOORAY!


We also added another member to our "canning clan"- Tami is actually my neighbor! She even brought her own grabber--LOVE it! 

During our trip, Jared's kick stand broke. Here's the clan trying to fix it. 

We collected a total of three plastic bags full of cans on our trip. Not bad for a neighborhood that we had already cleaned up a couple of months ago! 

Miles: 11.08 (Jared wanted me to give the total for all of us-LOL!) 
2.77 each

A Busy Road...Trip

7/18/12


On my way home today, I noticed there were LOTS of cans along side of the road. I called up Katy, and we agreed to bike down this busy road and go canning. This busy road has no sidewalk, so we biked single-file and pulled off onto the grass when we saw a can.


I have to admit this trip was very scarrrrry--the cars that passed us didn't really "get over", slow down, or yield to us...basically they didn't make it safe for us to be on the road! **Please BE CAREFUL when driving near bikers!!! 


Katy and I ended up near the bridge on this road and found lots of cans around this area. It was super fun cleaning up the neighborhood. 

I'm thankful that Kates goes into the woods to get these cans--she takes her title "Canning President" seriously:)

 I was trying to take a picture of Kates---but accidently had my iphone camera switched to self-portrait. LOL!

Miles: 5.32

Canning Alone....and with Olsen

7/17/12


Monday night another storm came in when we normally do our "regular route". So we were rained out. However, Olsen and I decided to go pick up some of the cans on Tuesday morning (THANKS to our friends who put their cans in plastic bags for us near their house! This makes picking up cans easy!!). 

Tuesday afternoon was kind of uneventful due to the canning clan being busy and having their own things to do. So I decided to can by myself. 

Trav took this pic of me after I rode over to say Hi:) 

It was kind of a hilarious site as I would get off the bike and pick up the cans! I couldn't just kick the stand down, do my thing, kick it back up, and ride off.... I had my toes painted that day and had to be sure I didn't risk chipping the paint! I also tried to get a good picture of Olsen and I with our canning collection from the day.

TAKE 1: neither of us looking at the camera

Take 2: better--Trav came home and was able to get Olsen to look at the camera, but I was talking!

Take 3: this will just have to do:) 

Miles: 4.88

Short Ride With a Big Pick-up

7/15/12


Our canning trips have been canceled a lot lately due to rain-- we have been getting the regular FL afternoon rains right when we want to go biking/canning. **NOTE:: I'm not complaining about the rain:) 


So on Sunday, right after a rain and right before another shower, the canning clan (including the "Canning King" Jared, "Canning President", Katy, and both Trav and I) decided to just go on a short bike ride. We rode around our neighborhoods enjoying the exercise and afternoon sunshine. On our ride, we stopped by a friend's house who donates their cans to us weekly (THANKS, Edward!!!).


It was a great ride!

Canning King, Jared, with our large pick-up

Miles: unsure! I forgot to look:) 

Flyer

7/11/12

We love how Cans4Christ is growing!!! We have been growing so much that we needed to print MORE flyers to give out while biking and on our regular routes. Here's a pic of our freshly printed flyers:)

Be on the lookout for this to show up in your mailbox or on your door!!!

**NOTE:: if you would like to have a flyer to share with your friends/family/neighbors....please email us {cans4christ at gmail dot com} and request a PDF file of our flyer. 

A Trip to the Recycling Center

7/10/12


It's been awhile since we took our cans into the recycling center. We have been collecting cans at church and around the neighborhood, and we had quite the pile of cans in our yard and neighboring lot. Normally we would have a "canning party" (Katy/Jared and sometimes Tom would come over and help crush all these cans), but we ran out of time this week! 


Here's Trav loading our cans in the back of the truck.

We had a hard time getting the cans to stay on the scale at the recycling center. NOTE TO SELF: always crush your cans before turning them in:) LOL!

Cans falling everywhere! 

This trip we took in 125 lbs of cans! HOOOORAY!!! Thank you to all who helped gather this many cans! Keep 'em coming:) 


Total pounds of cans collected: 585

Another Canning Training Session

7/9/12


Cans4Christ has been a huge success lately! We've been growing with more friends getting involved and more neighbors and families wanting to donate their cans weekly on our "regular routes". 


Katy and I usually go around on Mondays and sometimes Thursdays to collect cans from friends/neighbors/families. These people have given us permission to get their cans weekly and often leave their cans near a tree for us to pick-up. 


Well, this Monday we had a special friend come along during our canning adventure! Daria is a member of First Alliance Church (but is currently living in NY for schooling) and was home visiting during a summer break. We decided that she needed to get in on the action! 


This training session was a bit different than yesterday's. Since Daria is only down for short time, we had to go through "biking/canning" and "regular routes/canning". Daria did a great job at holding the bags and spotting cans on the side of the road while in a moving vehicle! 


Once again--my horrible photography skills are shown in these pics! I was trying to get Daria and Katy in action:) 

Notice Katy's big smile--that's because we are always having fun while canning:) 

Overall, we had a great night of collecting! This is what we collected in about 90 minutes! Great job, ladies!!! 

Canning Training Session

Hello, friends:} 


I've decided to take over the C4C blog because Trav has been super busy with other things. And as mentioned in his last post, he is REALLY behind in posting:) 


Hope you enjoy my stories and pics! 
Sav


ps...I'm starting with the most recent happenings because I can only remember so far back:) LOL!


7/8/12


As mentioned before, we have been super busy and our bikes have been def. neglected. However, today Trav and I decided to go for a short bike ride. While riding around, Trav mentioned that he saw our "Canning President", Katy, walking her dog on his way home from work. We decided to go to their house and go for a ride with them. 


This is the first time that Jared has been "canning" with us. So we decided that we would have a training canning session. It was a success! Jared helped find two cans {the area we were biking in had already been cleaned up by us, so two cans is a great find!}. Here's a pic of Jared and Trav enjoying their ride:)

Sorry this is isn't a great pic--Katy and I were behind them, and I am not good at taking photos while biking! LOL!