The donations continue, many with interesting backstories, as Newtown resident Betty Presnell carries on her one-woman bottle and can drive.

Presnell has been collecting and redeeming returnables for a year now. She began her project in July 2020, when she and the Nunnawauk Meadows Residents Association (NMRA) — of which she serves as president — needed to pivot in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The association’s annual two-day tag and bake sale was canceled due to the global health concern, so Presnell had to come up with a new way to raise funds for future programs and donations on behalf of the group.

That month, she put out a public request for bottles and cans, and the response has been phenomenal.

She has raised not only the $1,500 usually tallied during NMRA’s annual event, but also — with the help of countless residents at Nunnawauk Meadows and elsewhere — more than $3,500 for FAITH Food Pantry. Donations have also been made to The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Heart Association.

This week she made another donation to the nondenominational food pantry. On Tuesday, Presnell and her son Michael caught up with Jenni Degenhardt, whose recent donation of 40 55-gallon bags filled with returnables led to a $329.05 donation to the food pantry.

Degenhardt laughed, recalling the memory of unloading all of the returnables.

“We had all these cans in my garage, and my daughter saw one of Betty’s posts on Buy Nothing Newtown,” Degenhardt said. Buy Nothing Newtown is a local Facebook group that is part of an international network in which members are encouraged to “give and receive, share, lend, and express gratitude through a worldwide network of micro-gift economies in which the true wealth is the web of connections formed between people who are real-life neighbors,” according to the description on the local Facebook page.

Degenhardt said it was her daughter Krista who suggested the bottles and cans go to Presnell.

Making Collections Connections

The Buy Nothing Newtown page is where Presnell makes most of her collection connections.

After hearing from the Degenhardts, it took a few trips to Big Y on Queen Street to turn in all the bottles and cans.

“We did the redemption over four days, I think,” Presnell said.

That collection resulted in $429.05 and a redemption receipt that was at least 13 inches long.

From that figure, $329.05 was donated on July 13 to the food pantry, bringing the total since the drive began to $3,518.75, according to Presnell’s calculations.

The additional $100 from the Degenhardt returns has been earmarked for Families United in Newtown, the next group that will receive a donation once the collection reaches $500 again.

Two weeks ago, Presnell met up with Chris Farrington, who accepted a $500 donation for Hope On Main Street. The local group fundraises for the American Cancer Society.

While most of the returns are earmarked for FAITH, Presnell “puts about 10% of the collections aside for different groups,” she said June 30. “Each time I collect $500 that way, I make another donation to a local nonprofit. I’m trying to keep everything local.”

To drop off returnable bottles or cans, visit 1D Nunnawauk Meadows. From Nunnawauk Road, use the second entrance into the complex (driving behind the community building); at the gazebo, look to the right (toward the east-southeast).

“We’re the house across from the gazebo,” she told The Newtown Bee in January. “That’s what I tell everybody.”

Returnables should be clean and rinsed, and may be left near her door. Presnell has not received any complaints about an unsightly collection from neighbors, she said, because she does not leave cans and bottles resting long.

Presnell is active on Facebook, and can be reached through Facebook Messenger.

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