Newtown resident Andrea Farley visited FAITH Food Pantry recently, when she offered a donation to volunteers based on funds raised by countless strangers.

Late last year Farley took over an ongoing bottle and can redemption drive that had been started in 2020 by then-Nunnawauk Meadows Residents Association President Betty Presnell. In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Presnell had launched the redemption drive to raise funds to replace what would be lost by the cancellation of the association’s annual fundraiser.

A two-day tag and bake sale was impossible to present to the public in 2020 (and again in 2021, it turned out), so Presnell brainstormed until she devised a way to raise funds, one nickel at a time.

She invited residents to drop off their redeemable cans and bottles, and then began returning every one of them at local redemption centers. She and her husband and/or son spent hours also picking up collections of the same, always taking photos of the receipts and sharing as much as possible via social media so that donors did in fact see that their funds were being used as intended.

The $2,500 Presnell hoped to raise for NMRA was quickly surpassed, but the donations continued to arrive. Presnell continued her efforts, too, and began making regular donations to FAITH Food Pantry. She continued the bottle and can drive, however, accepting donations, redeeming them, and then donating every nickel to FAITH Food Pantry and other nonprofits.

Presnell’s efforts — which she always said went well beyond her and included every person who dropped off any number of bottles and/or cans, as well as the family members who helped her redeem all of those returnables — led to $9,000 being raised for the food pantry, and $500 donations each to American Cancer Society, each of Newtown’s five volunteer fire companies, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Families United in Newtown, and Juvenile Diabetes Association, among others.

Flash forward to October 2022, when Presnell and her family announced their intentions to move out of the area. When that happened, there was an initial fear that the community effort would conclude.

Soon after, however, fellow Nunnawauk Meadows resident Andrea Farley contacted Presnell and said she would be honored to continue the collective project.

The donations and returns have been a little slower during the first few months under her guidance, Farley admitted last week, but she proudly arrived at FAITH Food Pantry with $627.

Food Pantry President Lee Paulsen and Vice President Jill LeBlanc were thrilled.

“This is wonderful,” Paulsen said.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” LeBlanc added. “Thank you for doing this. It’s really going to help a lot of people.”

As with her predecessor, Farley was apologetic that she was the only one making the donation Tuesday morning.

“I wish all the others could be here,” she said. “Newtowners are really nice, and so generous. This is the work of so many people.”

Presnell’s donations went to many nonprofit organizations. Farley said last week that “for the time being,” she is going to focus all donations on the nondenominational food pantry open to all Newtown residents.

Clean, rinsed returnable cans and bottles can be dropped at 15B Nunnawauk Meadows. From Nunnawauk Road, take the westernmost entrance into the apartment community — the first left if traveling east, from Mile Hill Road; the fifth driveway on the right if traveling west, from the intersection of Nunnawauk and Hitfield Roads.

Follow the signs within the complex to Building 15; Farley’s front door, like all others, is clearly marked.

To arrange for a pick-up or for additional assistance, Andrea Farley can be reached at 475-323-7139.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.