OLDS — Due to COVID-19 protocols, the 185 Olds Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron will hold its annual bottle drive for a month instead of the usual one-day, door-to-door drive, ending April 13.
Residents wishing to support the cadets are asked to bring their empty bottles and cans to the Olds Bottle Depot at 4314-50th Ave. any time they’re open from March 13 to April 13 and let staff there know that the cans and bottles are a donation for the cadets.
That said, if residents want to drop off their bottles and cans before then for the cadets, simply tell the staff so.
Karen Taylor, the fundraising coordinator for the 185 Olds Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron, says this is the first year the cadets have run their bottle drive this way. They decided to do so to keep themselves and donors safe.
Last year, the drive happened to be scheduled on the first day of the pandemic lockdown. The cadets only received a couple of hundred dollars, compared to previous years when the door-to-door campaign reaped a couple of thousand dollars.
They’re hoping this one-month method will bring the numbers back closer to previous years.
Tayor noted the bottle drive is pretty much the squadron's largest fundraiser each year.
“It’s the only way we collect money for kids to do different activities like go to camps or have Range Day or fly at the gliding club,” she said.
"We’re hoping to have a better year than we did last year, that’s for sure. There was a lot of confusion and chaos at that time, too, right? Peoples’ lives were changing that weekend quite drastically.
"Last year’s numbers, like I said, were not anything that we’re super proud of, but we’re so thankful for whatever we can get from the residents,” she added.
