Dumpster Diving

Ordinarily I try to keep a clean column. But this week I must warn, I'm talking trash.
Now that I have your attention, let me explain. I have rediscovered dumpster diving. I say "re" discovered because a few years ago my artist friend, Pam and I used to hit the VanNostran's cabinet shop dumpster after hours to dig out prime pieces of wood to paint on. And yes, on occasion we actually got IN the dumpster and pilfered through the sawdust.
Of late, I have been on another dumpster mission. Yellow Pepsi caps and Pepsi twelve pack boxes. These particular items are worth their weight in gold to BigHouse Foundation, the charity near and dear to my heart.
The Pepsi Company offers incredible grants to organizations willing to solicit votes online and through text messages from their supporters. BigHouse Foundation won a $25,000 grant in 2009 to buy equipment, start an afterschool program, pay for improvements to the building and otherwise help run the organization day to day.
This year BigHouse has applied for a $10,000 grant to provide packages for children in twenty Alabama counties who are new to foster care. These packages will provide emergency items: New pajamas, underwear, shoes, hygene items, school supplies, a toy and various other age appropriate needs. These packages are needed because more often than not children are brought into foster care with only the clothing they have on. It is common for a foster family to welcome a new child as an emergency placement and it is impossible to have everything a child needs in appropriate sizes at any given time. It is the desire of BigHouse and case workers as well as foster parents to make these children as comfortable as possible quickly. Having a care package to give them will help.
The way to win the grant is to collect the most votes on the Pepsi website.
It is free to vote but you can power vote by purchasing Pepsi products and looking for the code on the yellow caps and on the cardboard can packages.
My family bought numerous bottles of Pepsi this past weekend but could not be happy with our own collected codes. My daughter and son-in-law suggested we revisit my dumpster diving habit. We loaded the old Suburban and hit all the recycling bins in Lee County.
We drew the line at mixed trash, but found the recycling bins surprisingly clean. We collected a few yellow caps but hunted to no avail for crushed cardboard twelve pack boxes. We laughed about what we must have looked like to the few recyclers who actually came to drop something off.
I won't ask you to join us in dumpsters. But, I urge you to please buy Pepsi products this month and save your yellow caps for BigHouse. The contest is over at the end of the month. You can drop your caps off at BigHouse on Samford Ave in Opelika next door to the Onion Bookstore or at Integrity Auto Service on Geneva Street, or you can vote! This is a great way to support BigHouse directly. You can find all the information you need by going to www.ourbighouse.org or "friending" BigHouse on facebook. Thank you, Your help will keep this woman out of the trash.