Greetings and Happy Earth Week!

We write to inform you of our community celebration on Earth Day, this Thursday, April 22, at 11 am in Blue River.

The celebration will focus on the benefits of the Oregon Bottle Bill adopted some years ago by a very forward-thinking legislature and governor. Ours is one of only a handful of states requiring a deposit be paid on most beverage containers, the intent being it would be an incentive to keep containers from littering our landscape, polluting our waterways or ending up in the landfill. Truly a wonderful gift to Mother Earth and a cause for celebrating.

Another great benefit of the Bottle Bill is nonprofit groups can use donated containers as a source of fundraising. Oregon has one of the highest refund amounts in the country and the Blue River Bottle Boys have been able to donate thousands of dollars from the Blue Bag collection project in conjunction with the ORBC (Bottle Drop )over the past few years.

The Holiday Farm fire led to the formation of the “one dime at a time” campaign to raise money to help with the rebuild of the O’Brien Library, the medical clinic, and fire station in Blue River. The tremendous support from the community has made it possible for funds to also be given to help with the rebuild of the Vida-Community Center and the continued support of the Upper McKenzie Community Center, The Walterville Grange and McKenzie Community Track and Field.

Our planned event will take place at 11 am where Melaine’s Market in Blue River was located, now the command center for the clean-up project. We will be attempting to fill a truck with Blue Bags to take to the Bottle Drop for a special promotion that will give us 20% more for our donations. We are asking folks to show up and help toss a bag into the truck. We will be using this gathering to produce a video we will submit in a contest to win extra money for our causes. We will follow all protocols for keeping ourselves socially distanced and recommend masks. If you do not have a full bag or containers not in bags, bring them along and we will provide Blue Bags and help fill them. Show up with or without a bag and help toss some into the truck!

We hope to have a nice turnout of folks to help celebrate the progress being made to restore our community and it’s institutions and thank one another for the hard work being done.

Please help us spread the news of the celebration: Thursday, April 22 11 am Blue River.

Thank you

Pete Petty

Monty Wilson

The Bottle Boys