Turning junk into cash
Campbellford Lions raise money and keep stuff out of our landfill
The Campbellford Lions Club can keep your junk out of the Brighton dump and turn it into cash.
No, they aren’t using magic or sleight of hand, it’s just plain hard work and hours working in a cold garage.
Last Friday, Lions club member Elaine Gooderham stood amidst boxes piled shoulder height in the club’s garage in their park on Queen Street and showed me how it’s done.
The boxes were filled with unwanted items that were left when the Baptist Busy Bees closed their flea market for the season.
Gooderham arranged for a lot of the things that hadn’t sold to be delivered to the garage. She has been sorting it out to pull out books that can be sold to a store in Oshawa and grabbing any metals or wires that can be sold as scrap.
“I take any medical devices like canes, raised toilet seats, or walkers, and give them to the Odd Fellows,” Gooderham says. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows on Victoria Street has a wide range of devices that it provides to local residents.
Holding up an aged computer mouse by its cord, she says: “We can sell broken phone charging cords and computer wires. It’s called dirty wire, but the copper is worth money.”
The wire would fetch more money if the plastic was stripped off, but that’s more work than the Lions usually take on.
“I find the darndest things,” she says, pulling out a bag filled with votives and other candles. “This is just garbage, I’m afraid.”
During a quick peek around, I saw jigsaw puzzles, hanging lamps, a tired Santa decoration, picture frames, a small end table and much, much more.
Gooderham says she first got into the junk recycling world when she was a Lions club member in Markham and her club sold unwanted items to area thrift shops. When she moved here a couple of years ago, she saw an opportunity to do the same thing in Trent Hills.
So now the Lions Club gathers items from Busy Bee or other garage sales and delivers them to a thrift store in Belleville which pays by the pound. The store then sorts through to find things it can sell and disposes of any leftovers.
“We donate half the money to Diabetes Canada and keep half for local projects,” Gooderham says.
That packed garage should be emptied on Tuesday, weather permitting, when a truck will take the boxes to Belleville and it will be ready for more donations in the spring.
Gooderham is planning to put up flyers around Trent Hills and notices online urging people to donate items that they haven’t been able to sell. The club doesn’t take any large furniture, since it simply doesn’t have enough room.
If you have items to donate contact her at elaine.gooderham@gmail.com or call 416.660.5838.
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