A townwide bottle and can drive launched over two years ago to raise funds for local nonprofits is not ending, despite its founder moving out of the area. Even better: very little is changing.

Betty Presnell launched a bottle and can drive during the early months of the pandemic, hoping to raise funds to cover the cancellation of the 2020 Nunnawauk Meadows Residents Association Annual Tag & Bake Sale. Presnell was at the time president of the association.

She raised the $2,500 the tag sale averages. 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.

Presnell still refuses to let the spotlight shine only on her.

“What started as a means to earn money at a difficult time has turned into a team effort that I am incredibly proud to be a part of,” she said this week. “I have met many people and am grateful to y’all. If you want to keep in touch The Bee has my address.”

When Presnell announced in early October that she and her family would be moving south, it was feared the community effort would conclude.

Soon thereafter, fortunately, a fellow Nunnawauk Meadows resident stepped up.

After quietly announcing her intention about two weeks ago, Andrea Farley has already started seeing bags of bottles and cans when she opens her front door.

“I admired Betty for doing this,” Farley said Monday morning. “It was a fantastic idea. It was too good to let drop.”

Farley has lived in Newtown since she was nine years old, but she was certainly familiar with the town before her family moved into the house her father built. Her great-grandmother, she said, owned land in the Botsford area in the 1930s, and the family continued living there for decades.

“I love Newtown,” she said. “It still has a very homey feeling.”

She is looking forward to being able to join others who volunteer to better the town.

“There are a lot of good organizations here, and a lot of people who try to do good,” she said. “I admire their spirit. I’m glad I can be part of that now that I have some time to do this.”

Farley will continue collecting cans and bottles, and making donations to FAITH Food Pantry. She will additionally continue making $500 donations to nonprofits as she reaches that milestone, she said this week.

Like her predecessor, Farley will pick up donations if needed.

“If someone has trouble getting around or it’s very inconvenient for them, I can always go out and pick up,” she said. “I’m always out and about somewhere.”

She is also carrying donations into her apartment at least once a day, if not more often.

In addition to having a new person, donors now have a new location to drop their rinsed, returnable bottles and cans. Donors will still head to Nunnawauk Meadows, but now they are to look for Unit 15B.

As the crow flies, Farnell’s front door is about 240 yards west of Presnell’s. 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; her front door, like all others, is clearly marked.

Beyond that, nothing else is really changing.

“Betty perfected this,” Farley said this week. “Why mess with perfection?”

Farley already has Presnell’s stamp of approval and encouragement. In a message to her former fellow Newtown residents, Presnell this week said she prays “that you will still drop off the returnables to Andrea, a person who has FAITH Food Pantry in mind to keep helping others as Newtown and Sandy Hook are known for kindness and being helpful.”

The baton has been passed.

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.