Realtor bottle drive raises $18K for St. Albert Food Bank

Two hours; more than 170,000 bottles, cans and containers. 

That's how much the RE/MAX Professionals office collected for the St. Albert Food Bank through their recent bottle drive.

The local realtor office picked up bags of cans, containers and glass bottles from around 700 addresses in St. Albert and Sturgeon County on April 24, enlisting the help of the Eager Beaver Moving Company to collect and transport all the donations.

The drive was so successful it took three weeks for the St. Albert Bottle Depot in Riel Business Park to tally up the final count. On May 15, the receipt printed showed the team had raised $18,004.95 for the food bank. 

"One day, for that amount of cash? It totally surpassed everyone's expectations," said Shandrie Lewis, real estate agent and broker for RE/MAX Professionals. "It just made all that hard work so worth it."

Bill Yassine at the St Albert Bottle Depot said the amount of donations collected through the bottle drive was the largest he's seen in 35 years. The bottle depot closed on Sundays just so staff could work on processing it all. 

"This is the biggest bottle drive I have ever seen," Yassine said. "It was a lot of work but I am happy we did it, and it's all going for a good cause to help those less fortunate in St. Albert. And we're here to serve our community, the best community in Alberta."

Planned over the course of a few days, the drive itself was a "whirlwind" event. A five-tonne truck was filled up less than an hour into the drive, and luckily the St. Albert moving company was able to step in and help.

Donations filled two five-tonne trucks, six flatbed trailers and six cube vans. Each address the team visited had more than one bag of donations for the drive, some with notes of appreciation attached.

"Everybody has been struggling, no matter what industry they're in. But the fact that St. Albert was just so eager to help other people ... it's remarkable," Lewis said. 

On Tuesday, the RE/MAX office presented the cheque to Suzan Krecsy, executive director for the St. Albert Food Bank. 

When Krecsy heard how much the team had raised, tears welled up in her eyes. 

"I would hug you right now if I could," she told Lewis, smiling. 

The money will be used to purchase more food and supplies to ensure families in need are covered through June and July, Krecsy said.

Recent fundraisers, including a $140,000 boost from T8N100Men's recent campaign, have allowed the St. Albert Food Bank to plan ahead rather than try to keep up with surging demand during the pandemic.

"That's amazing. I mean, I'm speechless. I'm speechless," Krecsy said. "This is going to help so much."

News of the St. Albert bottle drive's success has spread to other RE/MAX offices across Western Canada, Lewis said. Given the "overwhelming" response to their first bottle drive, Lewis said the team is now looking at doing a second one for another charity in St. Albert.  

"Just one day of hard work resulted in $18,000? To me, that made it so worth it, and it makes me want to do it again," Lewis said. "I'm just incredibly proud."