Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
In the parking lot behind the Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, members of the New Haven Lions Club teamed up with Barnard Principal Bob McCain for a first-time “Shred Event” fundraiser.
The Lions invited New Haveners to collect any old papers or computers around their houses and dump it off at Barnard Saturday morning. Participants paid $10 for smaller loads and $20 for larger loads. Lions Club President Jamene Farrell said the money will fund their initiatives to help fight blindness, feed the hungry at Columbus House, and aid seniors and the disabled.
Throughout the morning, 50 people pulled up and waited in their cars as the Lions unloaded paper piles from their trunks.
Over a dozen of the New Haven and Fairfield county Lions Club 49 members came to volunteer on Saturday. At 8 a.m. they set up a tent and began tying balloons and hanging signs around the school.
Fred Ventura parked in the lot with a trunk full of old bills, paperwork, and receipts. “I wanted to come support the Lions and get rid of all this stuff I’ve had for years!” he said.
Fred Ventura with Jamene (Jay) Farrell.
Lions volunteers dumped the paper in bins and wheeled the bins over to a shredding and recycling company they contracted for the day.
Joe Johnston, who owns a company called Affordable Solutions, has three trucks for on-site shredding. The truck grabs the paper bins and chucks the paper into a shredding compartment.
Once the truck is filled with the shredded paper, Johnston drops it off at a paper recycling plant in Bridgeport. The plant then turns it into paper plates and other recycled paper products.
On Saturday, Johnston’s truck was filled with 4,500 pounds of shredded paper and eight hard drives and computers. For the computers, Johnston disassembles and recycles the hard drives and recycles the rest of the computers at a separate plant.
Johnston shreds papers at fundraising events every few weeks around the state. He said with people stuck at home during the pandemic, more and more people are cleaning and showing up to shred papers. At one event in Fairfield roughly a month ago, Johnston said, the shredding line wrapped the building. “It was probably their sixth time doing that event and never was it ever that busy.”
Joe Johnston.
“Everybody has stuff and you have to get rid of it and this is the environmental way to do it” he said.
McCain said he is excited to get Barnard students more involved in recycling efforts like the shredding event.
“I think it’s fantastic for us to do an event like this because we’re an environmental school and we should be doing things like this. It can help kids understand recycling is a really important thing to be doing.” said McCain.
Farrell was inspired to start the event last August when she and another member of the Lions attended a lecture from a professional organizer who spoke at the Mitchell Library about decluttering and redecorating. At the end of the lecture, one librarian told Farrell she wasn’t sure where the library should get their recycled papers shredded. “I stepped right up and I said, ‘The Lions club could do it with you. Let’s do it!’”
Jamene Farrell.
Initially the Lions planned to partner with the environmental school to shred and recycle in May. The Lions wanted to have the kids and their families involved in the process. When Covid-19 shut down the school, they altered their plans. Once reopenings started in New Haven, the Lions pounced to quickly organize the event for July.
“As it turns out, people like to come after they do taxes, so this worked out perfectly,” Farrell said.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the Lions have been holding bimonthly Zoom meetings to plan for the shred event and other socially distanced in-person events for the future.
Lions members Jim and Joan Bennett organize eyesight screenings at libraries, nursery schools, and other schools in North Haven, Orange, and West Haven. Jim, who has been a member for 40 years, said last year they were able to screen 7,000 kids. In addition to the eyesight screenings, the Lions Club is also in its second year of funding a camp for kids with diabetes in Meriden.
Jim Bennett (left) with Farrell and next year’s Lions Club president, Kamor Olaosebikan.
Farrell, who is a social worker at Seth G. Haley Elementary School, said the New Haven Lions are trying to expand their in-person and New Haven-based programs and events. “We want to be visible in New Haven. We care about New Haven. All we do is raise money and give it away.”
Farrell said the Lions are planning to run more shredding events with Barnard students and families this year.