By Assemblyman Bill Magnarelli
Fantastic ones! If you were at the electronics recycling event I sponsored Saturday, July 30, at the Baldwinsville school district complex, then you witnessed a group of students that worked in 83-degree heat for six hours straight, unloading all sorts of electronics, including the heavy old tube TVs. As a matter of fact, seven tractor-trailers full were collected!
The students were members of the Baldwinsville Marching Band who worked the event as a fundraiser. I was approached originally by a recycling company who donates a portion of the proceeds, based on tonnage, to a community group that I would select. We approached the Baldwinsville school district and it decided to offer the job to the marching band. The band director and parents accepted and off we went.
As this was the first time any of us were involved in a free drop-off recycling event, no one knew what to expect. Well, the result was a success — six hours of a steady flow of cars with happy participants eager to discard old electronic equipment, filling seven tractor-trailers.
We received many comments on how organized the event was, how smoothly it flowed and how the wait to unload wasn’t “long at all.” I have to give credit to the Village of Baldwinsville Police Department, which worked with my staff to outline a traffic plan and then oversaw the entire day’s event. Without it, there could have been some serious chaos. Credit also goes to the Baldwinsville school district facilities department, which supported the day’s event, remained on the scene and was available to us all day. But the bulk of the credit goes to the students of the marching band. Their jobs were not easy, by any stretch of the imagination. They never stopped working, they were courteous and they were committed to the task of raising money for their band. They knew that the more tonnage they unloaded, the more money they would make.
You know, the saying “It takes a village” was never more on display then last Saturday in Baldwinsville. The entire village rallied around this event and provided the support that the students needed to accomplish their goal. It seems to me that the same support system in every student’s life and such community involvement would go a long way to helping all children succeed. In any case, my hat’s off to the students, parents, teachers and the community of the Baldwinsville Bees. It was a pleasure working with you and we are already starting to plan for next year.
