Happy Birthday, Cans4Christ

3/30/13

Photo Credit

We are sooooooo excited to share that Trav and I have been collecting cans for 1 year!!! On March 28th, 2012, we went on our first ride to "clean up" the neighborhood and began our Cans4Christ ministry!!!  Check out our first post HERE! 

Our vision for Cans4Christ has grown bigger than we ever could imagine. And it's all because of God! We know that He has a plan for C4C and First Alliance Church-- we are just enjoying the ride and waiting to see what He will do next!!

THANKS so much for following us for the past year-- your love and support means so much to us! And thank you for continuing to collect cans for our ministry!

So let's celebrate!!! Happy birthday, Cans4Christ!!! Here's to many more years of collecting cans and adventures with the Canning Crew:}

More Canning?

3/4/13 continued x3

YUP! Today Trav and I headed to the recycling center two times {HERE and HERE}, and then I had to run the Monday night route! We never stop!

Kates asked if we could bring a new friend along--- my answer was OF COURSE! Tonight we brought Sophie, Kates' niece.  

When we picked her up, she had a bag of cans for us! I think I like her coming along:)

Kates and Sophie did most of the work tonight! Another reason I like when Sophie comes along!!! LOL! 

The route was regular, like most Monday nights... well, this time we saw something different... Christmas lights lit up! I guess this house wanted to celebrate Christmas in March... or maybe they just had a party. Either way, we giggled because it was def. not normal for us to see this:) LOL!

Not sure you can see it-- but the Christmas lights were on and wrapped around the front trees. I don't remember seeing them before... but maybe that's because I was canning:)

And finally, one more pic of Kates at a good friend's house. He is an older gentleman and is super sweet:) We enjoy picking up cans from his house!

As always.... a good time was had by ALL:) And Sophie can def. come back canning {as long as she brings a bag and does all the work for me! LOL!}! 

ECC...kind of:)

3/4/13 continued x2

Welcome to ANOTHER edition of the "Extended Canning Crew"!!! Read THIS post for more details. **NOTE:: We would love to see YOU as part of our ECC!!

The past two posts {HERE and HERE} have shared our adventures heading to the recycling center after we got back from vacation. This time I asked the Canning Crew for guesses on how many pounds we recycled. Well... I also asked our Facebook fans for guesses! I put this photo on FB using Instagram asking if anyone had a guess for our load.

We had two responses... both were good guesses, but neither one won. Next time:)

 

Julie: 400

Aunt Mary: 50

 THANKS so much for your love and support for C4C, Aunt Mary and Julie!!! You guys are the BESTEST:)

If you would like to be a part of the "Extended Canning Crew", take some pictures of your family or yourself collecting cans, crushing cans, or dropping off cans at the C4C trailer and send them to {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

**Please include: names of all people in the picture, explain what you were doing and how much fun it was, as well as your email address.

Trip #2

3/4/13 continued

Yesterday's post {HERE} shared the first trip to the recycling center-- it was exciting to see the pounds go so high!! We took in 147 pounds for our first load, and we still had this many bags waiting for us at the C4C trailer in the church parking lot!!!

We need to pick up the cans and bags on the ground for Trip #2! 

We drove back to the church and quickly got to work. We loaded the truck bed but had a bit of difficulty getting it to close. So Trav had to jump up there and lay on them to push them in tighter! LOL! 

From the previous pic above... it doesn't look like THAT much!! But it filled the bed up quickly:)

We headed off back to the recycling center and was surprised again by the amount of cans collected!!

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled this trip: 129

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 3/4/13: 3,662 pounds!!!!! 

So who was our winner... today we collected and recylced 147 + 129 pounds making our total.... 276!!!! 


Tami: 302 (playing Price Is Right strategy)
Kates: 279
Jared: 404
Sav: 301
Trav: 222
Poppie: 245

Congrats, Kates!!! You win.... uh... I don't think we ever discussed it:) I'll think of something! 

It's Time! Trip #1-- lots of pics

3/4/13

It's time--- that we go to the Recycling Center! Yesterday {HERE} we were blown away by the amount of cans sitting outside of the trailer when we arrived for church service. That was the clue that this trip was necessary:)

So Trav and I suited up for the big trip-- today it required some extra clothing since it was SOOOOOO cold out! 

Trav packaged up the cans that were in the side lot while I found some extra gloves, hoodie, and hat. 

Thanks, Trav!!! I know that bagging these cans up wasn't easy-- esp. since they sat in the sun for two weeks! <3 you!

Trav said I looked like a fighter with my fingerless gloves and getup for the day! I didn't care what I looked like-- I just wanted to be warm:)

Here's what the truck load was from our house.

And this is what we saw when we got to the parking lot at church! I think that more cans were dropped off last night after the service! LOL! 

The good news about this load is that most of the cans were already in bags-- so the re-bagging and organizing of these cans didn't take long! Trav and I went right to work. His job was to pull out the cans/etc., and I had to open each bag (untie the knots) to make them fuller. 

It's amazing how many cans we can collect from just our church... and without fail, there is always a surprise in the trailer that we have to sort through! This time around we found a box full of empty soup cans, veggie cans, and cat cans. We cannot recycle these:( 

These non-recyclable cans were put into this box and filled it up! We are appreciative of those who bring these cans-- but we need to let them know that we don't recycle them:)

Now this is a good view of the trailer-- ready for MORE cans!

After this victory shot, I turned around to see that Trav was getting the web out and trying to fit as many bags as he could in the truck bed. LOL! This was def. going to be a two load trip:)

Here's what we had to leave behind while we took the first load in-- it doesn't even look like we made a dent on the pile:) LOL! 

I texted everyone in the Canning Crew for guesses-- here's what they said: 

Tami: 302 (playing Price Is Right strategy)
Kates: 279
Jared: 404
Sav: 301
Trav: 222
Poppie: 245

And guess what... our first load was HUGE!!!!!! Check out how large the pile was on the scale!! 

Total pounds of aluminum cans recycled today: 147

Total pounds recycled for C4C as of 3/4/13: 3,533 pounds!!!!! 

And Trav helped out throwing the cans to their spot! I think that's his favorite thing to do at the end of a recycling trip:)

First Sunday Back...

3/3/13

...and it looks like we NEEEEEEEEEEED to go to the recycling center! 

WOWZA! That's a lot of cans:)

Thanks, First Alliance Church, for continuing to bring your can collections to our C4C trailer!! Keep up the great work!!! 

First Friday Back...

3/1/13

...and it didn't turn out as planned! 

It's hard to get back into the groove of things and your schedule after a vacation. AND it's even more difficult when you have a Canning Crew member sick {Trav is still ill}. ANNNNNNNND it's even more difficult to work in the cold! 

Today I did the Friday route by myself... and I woke up a bit late! So I tried to rush through the route before the Recycling Trucks picked up our cans. Right in the middle of the route, look what I ran into!!! 

YUP! I was so late that the Recycling Trucks got our cans first.

No worries though-- it happens! Plus, we have two wonderful friends on the Friday Route that save their cans for us near their house-- so I knew that the trucks wouldn't get these cans!

When I stopped at the last house, I remembered that we informed her of our absence and asked her to save her cans for an extra week. WOW! Look at all of these  cans! HOOOOOORAY! 

I was super happy until I dropped the bin {which had rain water and extra liquid in it) on my new shoes! Rats! But worth it since we were able to get so many cans in one stop:)

Not sure if you can see the stain down the right side- but it was a lot of liquid that hit my shoe and then leaked into it and my sock soaked it up! 

I returned home and reported back to Trav. Even though he was sick, I made him come outside to get a picture of my outfit-- it was so cold!!! And the worst part was that my hat wouldn't stay on my head! It would continue to move upwards on my head every time I bent down to pick up cans. This is what it would look like after each stop- LOL! 

I can't wait until it warms up and when Trav will feel better:)

Extended Canning Crew- UPDATE

2/28/13

Welcome to ANOTHER edition of the "Extended Canning Crew"!!! Read THIS post for more details. **NOTE:: We would love to see YOU as part of our ECC!!

We actually have an updated photo of our recent ECC member, Sara! Read her story HERE. She came to work today and Trav quickly asked if he could take a photo-- HOOOOOOORAY! I love when our ECC members share their cans and photos:)

 THANKS so much, Sara!!! YOU ROCK!

If you would like to be a part of the "Extended Canning Crew", take some pictures of your family or yourself collecting cans, crushing cans, or dropping off cans at the C4C trailer and send them to {Cans4Christ at gmail dot com}. 

**Please include: names of all people in the picture, explain what you were doing and how much fun it was, as well as your email address.

Monday Night Route with Onion Rings

2/25/13

Tonight was a super fun night for the canning crew---

The Story: Trav and I just returned from vacation, and while working on my weekly schedule Sunday night, I heard on the radio that the Outback Steakhouse race car driver (not sure of his name) had placed in the top 10 and that on Monday customers would get a free onion ring if they mentioned his name. So I texted the Canning Crew and told them that after canning we would have a special treat since they worked so hard while we were gone! 

So Monday the Canning Crew texted back and forth getting details set up-- Jason decided to make hamburgers and hot dogs for us, and Jared was bringing chips (since he was just getting off work when canning would end). PERFECT! So the goal was to go canning, pick up the onion rings and then hang out with the Crew for the night! 

Everyone was game, except Trav. We had only been home for 24 hours and he was seriously ill with the shakes, shivers, fever, and flu-like symptoms. Poor thing! I left him at home to rest and went to pick up the girls and get started on our route. My first stop was at Tami's house-- and I got to see the new puppy {see more info about him HERE}!!! 

Then off to Kate's house and onto the route! We worked hard and gathered up cans quickly! Look at Tami hustling to get this bag tied! 

And Kates got out of the truck to get some cans on the side of the road!

We ended the route with anticipation for the onion rings! However the rings would have to wait for a little while because we decided that since we were going down to Port Charlotte, we might as well stop by the C4C trailer at the church. 

You see, no one had the key to the trailer while we were gone! OOPS! So Trav and I received several phone calls and emails on Monday about how the trailer was packed and there were bags all down the side of the fence. This is good news.... but that means lots of work for us since we forgot to hand off the keys! LOL!

So the crew went to the trailer to find THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love how Kates is standing thinking about how we were going to accomplish this task! LOL!

WOWZA! That's a lot of cans! Kates, Tami, and I started throwing cans into the trailer and re-bagging some into bigger black bags (so they didn't fly away with the wind). We ended up filling up the C4C trailer with about eight large bags stacked on the side near the fence. 

FINALLY! It was time to get the rings! We all started calling Outback Steakhouse at the same time-- supposedly we each could get a free onion ring. 

We called and called but didn't get anyone on the phone until we arrived at the restaurant. Tami ran in and got our place for "take-out". We all put in our order and got FREE ONION RINGS! HOOOOOOOORAY! Thank you Outback Steakhouse race car driver!!! 

We were starving by the time we arrived at Tami's house for dinner-- so I didn't take any pics of the entire crew. Next time!!! I hope that race car driver wins again so we can get more free onion rings and hang out on Monday night next week:} 

ps... the hamburgers and hot dogs were really good! Jason is on grill duty again! And Jared brought some gooooooood chips! I always love getting together with friends!!!

That's A Lot of Cans

2/25/13

That's what Trav and I said when we returned home from our vacation--- "THAT'S A LOT OF CANS!!"

Look at the pile of cans that Tami and Kates collected for us!! 

THANKS so much for doing the route for us!!!!