Sunflower Kiwanis club has the can-do attitude

By Nikki Patrick
Posted Jun 24, 2010
http://www.morningsun.net/featured/x1237303114/CAN-DO-ATTITUDE

Pittsburg - It's a nasty, sticky job to fight flies and ants for aluminum cans that are still dripping pop or beer, but somebody has to do it.

Members of the Sunflower Kiwanis  Club have been doing it since 2007 when they started Kansas for Kids. The project was the brain child of Robert Hurt, when he was president.
Saturday morning several members gathered at the Hurt home east of Pittsburg to transfer bags of cans from a garage to trucks and trailers so they could be taken to CMC Recycling, Joplin.

Club member Patty Nicholas pointed to a drip coming from the sacks in one of the trailers. "It will drip all the way over there and all the way back," she said.

"I'd say we've got about 600 pounds here today, and it took us six to eight weeks to collect them," Hurt said.

Normal price for aluminum cans right now is about 55 cents a pound, but the Kiwanis members are getting 58 cents.

"We are a preferred customer and get an extra three cents a pound because of our volume, and also because we're a civic organization," Hurt said. "Our goal this year is $2,000."

He explained that the money raised goes into the general fund which is used to help local youth projects such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Children's Advocacy Center, Crisis Resource Center, Wesley house, Salvation Army, Pittsburg Family YMCA, Shaping Lives Program, Habitat for Humanity of Crawford County and scholarships for Pittsburg State University students.

"Sunflower Kiwanis has built and maintains two pocket parks in Pittsburg," Hurt said. "We also sponsor  K-Kids at Meadowlark Elementary School and AKTION Club for adults with disabilities."

Their goal is simple, he said. "The Sunflower Kiwanis Cub is striving to live up to the Kiwanis defining statement," Hurt said. "Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world, one child and one community at a time."

Club members collect cans from 8 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of each month in the Dillons parking lot. They also bring sacks of cans they have collected to weekly club meetings, held at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday in dePaul Hall, Via Christi Hospital.

"Some of our biggest contributors of aluminum cans are Miller's/MPIX, 311 Club and Chicken Mary's," Hurt said. "Friends and family members of club members bring cans from all over the area. One member's brother brought a truck full of cans from Oregon. Whenever we travel, we pick up cans to bring home, too."

The cans are stored in a bin in a large metal building at Hurt's home until there's enough to warrant a trip to Joplin.

"We have raccoons and opossums tear open the bags looking for a taste of beer or pop," said Elma Hurt.

Nonetheless, club members think their can project is worth the all the hard work and hassle.

"We're cleaning up the environment, recycling and turning cans into cash for a good cause," Hurt said. "This is a win-win project."