Helping Rum River Life Choices

For her project, Teresa asked her community members to donate their aluminum cans. The money made from the “soda pop” drive would be donated to Rum River Life Choices.  She hopes to serve two purposes:  to take care of the well-being of others, and to take care of the well-being of our world.

Teresa chose to donate to Rum River Life Choices because they provide services such as pregnancy tests, relationship counseling, STD information, clothing, nursery equipment and supplies, prenatal and parenting classes, childbirth classes and Post-Abortion Counseling and Education Recovery Support Group. All of their services are free and confidential and while women of all ages are welcome,  their highest age range they have been serving is between 15-24 years of age.

First, Teresa contacted any and all would-be participants in her drive.

She spoke with Candace at Rum River Life Choices Center about her ideas and goal, and she e-mailed New Life Church to see if they would allow her to advertise her drive to their parishioners.

From the church she received both good and bad news. She was allowed to park the trailer there for 2 weeks; however, she could not make an announcement, and they wouldn’t print the information in the bulletin or allow her to hand each member a flyer. To get the word out, Teresa would need to attend each group and hand out flyers that way.

After getting confirmation and information from both Life Choices and New Life Church, she made some research phone calls to various people and groups to inquire about support and whether any of them had done a aluminum can drive before.

She got in contact with a friend about trailer, made flyers, researched other trailer ideas, and researched similar projects on-line. She found that while many people were doing “soda pop” can drives, the price of cans had gone down this years, so she may not raise as much money as originally anticipated. Nevertheless, Teresa continued on with her project.

She got a trailer from a friend, bought building supplies from Menards, and built the walls to the trailer.

Now that the trailer was ready, Teresa focused on spreading the word. She handed out flyers, and spoke to some classes at school. She got into contact with ECM for an ad to go in the paper, and talked with a friend who put up donation box at her workplace.

Teresa then made signs for the trailer and had them laminated. Once they were ready, she hung them on the trailer and waited for any donations to come in.

Over the following days, Teresa went around to several businesses in Princeton to hang flyers and/or talk to workers. She also went to a couple different churches.

She checked on the trailer daily until the end of her project. Using a borrowed truck, she got the trailer, loaded cans, stopped for more cans, and went to the recycling center. Along the way, she picked up donations from friends & family

Finally, she disassembled the trailer sides and returned the trailer to its original owner.

During her project, Teresa had to ask a multitude of people for advice as to how to go about making sure her drive was a success. She learned the handiness of a padlock (so that the trailer wouldn’t be stolen), and found out it was more difficult than anticipated to get businesses to hang up flyers. Often they would be set aside, or only put in the break room.

In the end, Teresa brought in 322.60 pounds of cans.  The total check given to Rum River Life Choices was $100.01

“My project brought awareness to the community of the need for donations to Rum River Life Choices Center.  Charity can help Rum River Life Choices to change a life and possibly save a life.  Compassion is the feeling of wanting to help someone and when you actually act on this feeling it brings much joy to the soul!  Some of the people who go to Rum River Life Choices Center feel like they have no hope, the chance of something good to happen and the center is able to show them love, compassion, kindness and nurturance.  Kindness was donating my time and money for supplies to build a trailer suitable to hold cans.  Rum River Life Choices Center shows kindness to their clients many times by simply being an ear, or a helping hand.  Nurturance is giving someone the care and attention they need and I wanted to be sure Rum River Life Choices Center knows there is people who care and support what they do.” – Teresa