Thousands of Hollywood residents benefit the environment by recycling and preventing their newspapers, aluminum and plastic from ending up in a landfill each month, but one resident wants to take recycling one step further, helping a local nonprofit organization in the process.
While volunteering for the Golf for Art tournament benefiting the Art and Culture Center in April, resident Marty Jacobsen of South Florida VoIP saw a large number of soda and beer cans winding up in the trash. He then had an idea. If he could gather those cans and sell them, the money generated could be used to benefit Hollywood’s Community Enhancement Collaboration, a nonprofit organization that aims to enhance the quality of life for the community by advancing and strengthening the economic, health, civic and social interests while improving community pride and promoting active participation by all citizens.
“This program is about recycling money for organizations that help people recycle their lives,” Jacobsen said. “The CEC helps people in the Washington Park neighborhood learn computer skills, collects food for its food bank and has toy drives. It’s a great organization.”
Jacobsen approached Hillcrest General Manager Lewis Rissman about collecting cans from the golf course, and Rissman said the decision to get involved was a “no brainer.”
“Marty called out of the blue, but it was perfect timing,” he said. “We’ve been thinking about recycling the things on the golf course for years. We try to do whatever we can for the community, so it was perfect. If we have the opportunity to help people in our own backyard, we’re happy to do it.”
Despite being the slow season on the golf course, Rissman said Hillcrest filled up two 95-gallon recycling bins in only four days at the start of the initiative, and Jacobsen said they average around $80 to $100 a week. The proceeds from the recycled cans will go into the CEC’s hurricane/emergency fund account, and as more is raised, the proceeds will foster the development of more programs and resources like toy drives, Thanksgiving feeding, education programs, food banks, crime watch and computer training. It will also help cover administrative costs.
“Marty is one unique individual who stepped up to the plate with new ideas,” said Nadine McCrea, executive director of the CEC. “He looks for ways for small nonprofit organizations like us to be served so that we are able to serve others. As a nonprofit organization, we welcome different ideas and various ways to raise funds. Money is our bloodline, just as volunteers are the muscle and brain. We must have some sort of cash flow to survive, and I am thankful for Marty and anyone else’s ideas to help the CEC.”
Jacobsen said they will expand the recycling initiative to the Hollywood Beach Golf Resort and Country Club soon and will search for places that pay higher prices for aluminum cans, so the CEC can make even more money to cover costs.
“I try to do a number of good things for charities because it’s important for business owners in the community to give back to their community,” Jacobsen said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
For more information about the Community Enhancement Collaboration, visit http://www.cechollywood.org/.
