Members of the Bella Vista Fly Tyers Club recently hauled several trash bags full of aluminum cans to the recycling center in Rogers -- $308 worth of cans, to be exact -- and will now use that money to continue its mission of funding philanthropic projects in and around Bella Vista.
According to Paul Bickford, the club's self-appointed historian who claims "no prior experience" while welcoming "any criticism and corrections," club members began volunteering to assist the Bella Vista Recycling Center sometime in the early 2000s, and were paid around $6 per hour for their labor, money which was deposited into the club's treasury, which began to grow considerably. Some of the month's income reached at least $2,000, far above the funds collected via the club's $10 yearly membership dues, even with membership ranging from 150 to 250.
The club's bank account balance registered at least $30,000 for a number of years and, as a result, provided an opportunity for it to fund philanthropic projects by helping the Property Owners Association's Lakes, Parks and Fisheries Department implement needed lake and fishing environment improvements, such as buying fish to stock the POA's seven lakes, building fishing docks and fish cleaning stations and helping purchase fish habitat kits and supplies.
But when scrap commodities prices crashed in late 2018 for an extended period of time, the recycling center could no longer afford club volunteer labor costs for those who weekly piloted, most of the time, two to four trucks, with two to four volunteers per truck, each truck pulling large trailers early on Wednesday mornings for up to four hours, helping the center crush and retrieve tons of corrugated boxes from businesses all over Bentonville.
During the two-plus-year commodity price drop, the center completely restructured its business operations, greatly reducing its need for volunteers and therefore ending the possible re-establishment of the club's working relationship with the center.
As a result of the multi-year 2020 and '21 covid pandemic, club income was also severely impacted due to the drop in membership participation, which reached a low of about 50. This motivated the club's board to search for ways to develop new income streams beyond the $10 per year membership fee.
John Nuttall, a relatively new member, suggested collecting aluminum cans from POA golf cart barns on a weekly basis for recycling. Club members were skeptical at first, thinking it would take "forever" to collect enough cans to produce a non-trivial consistent income stream, and the club also knew the idea would have to have the support of top POA and golf operations management staff. As a result, Nuttall went to work and set up meetings with club and POA management to secure needed approval.
The club's board approved project startup efforts to begin May 1, 2021. The club's Conservation Committee Chairman Jim Von Rohr volunteered to store the weekly haul of bags filled with aluminum cans at his residence. However, the "can bag" volume quickly exceeded his expectations and, in an effort to find more space, he began transferring the bags to his personal storage unit.
As the number of bags grew, the club realized after several months this arrangement was becoming overwhelming and unmanageable.
Rick Echols, the POA's manager of the Lakes, Parks and Fisheries Department, offered to provide a place at his fisheries laboratory facility on East Lancashire where large bags could be stored, bags containing thousands of aluminum cans (mostly beer), provided by lots of beer drinking Bella Vista golfers.
The project now produces at least $100 a month for the club which, in turn, helps provide financial assistance to ongoing environment projects in the area.