ONE MILLION RECYCLED ALUMINUM CANS FOR THE MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION

What started as a hobby decades ago has turned into a movement of solidarity and altruism in the USA. At the age of 65, Gerald Schied has spent most of his life collecting aluminum cans. This veteran South Dakota collector has spent an entire month hauling aluminum cans to a recycling plant to raise money for the international Make-A-Wish Foundation.

With the first donation of cans, Schied received a cheque for 65. 000 to which must be added a second cheque for $40,000 for his latest collection. To facilitate its collection process, Schied built its own can crusher. The crushed cans were then stored in large containers that he called ‘totes’. Each bag can hold about 9,000 cans, Shied says.

For Schied, it almost becomes a second job. %22They sent 131 totes to my house and I stacked them on top of each other in two layers,%22 Schied details. In addition to his own donations, Schied adds that many people have thrown themselves into the project and are helping him by collecting and donating cans to continue raising funds.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1980 in the United States, which grants wishes to children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 18 who have life-threatening medical conditions.

The foundation has become the largest wish-granting organization in the world and is present in more than 36 countries on five continents. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America grants the wishes of children in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico through its 65 locations, while Make-A-Wish Foundation International serves children outside the United States. With the help of generous donors and more than 30,000 volunteers, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has granted more than 250,000 wishes worldwide since its inception.