Precious Cargo: Bottles for Isaiah Evans

Inspired by the month-long fundraising campaign organized by Leicester's Family Restaurant, Jordan Hopfe felt a need to contribute to the Isaiah Fund in some way. That's when he decided to fill a spare 53 foot semi-trailer with bottle and can donations from the community and began collections at the Hopfe Training Centre. 

"I saw Leicester's post about it [on Facebook], and I had a spare trailer. I figured I could at least do something to help."

While the donations have been steady, and there are sure signs of progress from the many bags of recyclables already brought forward, Hopfe is hoping the community will rally behind the lofty goal of completely filling the entire trailer for Isaiah. "A 53 foot trailer is a lot to fill", he admits, "but we're going to see what we can get!"

Although many donations have been made so far, the massive 53-foot trailer is only a quarter of the way to full capacity. 

Some large donations have been made by families bringing their yearly haul of recyclables to the Training Centre, but large hauls are not required. Any and all contributions are welcome. Hopfe added that Nadja Binder has played an important role in keeping the fundraiser organized and has volunteered a lot of time to pick up donations from people unable to bring their bottles and cans on their own.

"She's been going out to talk to a lot of people and has been keeping me organized, otherwise we couldn't do all this. We offer local pickup, but she also picks up donations from between Weyburn and Estevan."

The trailer is being kept in the Hopfe Training Centre's yard, located at their office directly beside Fido's Place. People wanting to drop off bags of bottles and cans for the fundraiser are invited to do so at any time. Hopfe says, "If nobody's here, but the gate is open, you're welcome to drop them off beside the trailer. But if nobody's here and the gates are closed, just leave them in front of the office and we'll get to them." 

"We'll keep going until the trailer's full... Ideally from top to bottom! We'll be giving this donation to the Isaiah Fund, and then we'll start again for someone else and have it be a rotating cycle of what we do."

Hopfe said that the trailer will be on location for some coming events, with plans to place the trailer in high visibility areas around Weyburn soon: "We'll be at the car show on father's day weekend with a trailer there. I'm also planning to talk with local businesses like Walmart or DSI Contracting to see if I can leave the trailer there after adding a decal saying 'drop your bottles here'. We'll see what happens!" 

If you are unable to transport your bottle donations to the Hopfe Training yard, you can call (306) 552-9199 in order to make pickup arrangements. Shannon Seitz, Isaiah's Educational Assistant and Caregiver, recently shared that the fund is currently sitting at just over $62,000 of their $100,000 goal to get Isaiah the specially outfitted van that he requires. Every single donation, no matter how big or small, makes a difference in bringing the Evans Family closer to their important goal.