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We Care Group in Houston nearing $20,000 in donations

Proceeds from bottle donations go to the B.C. Children’s Hospital
Eddie Huband
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(L-R) Volunteer Glen Taylor who helps with bottle transport, Brian Hewitt, Mae Vinneau and Cindy Horuk, a volunteer who helps with picking up bottles and cans out of ditches. The We Care Group is on the precipice of surpassing $20,000 in bottle donations to the B.C. Children’s Hospital. (File photo/Houston Today)

The We Care Group in Houston is nearing $20,000 in accumulative donations to the B.C. Children’s Hospital. The group was made up of Mae Vinneau, Louis Veress and Barbara and Brian Hewitt. Together, they began collecting bottles for donation back in 2008.

Today, the group is run by Vinneau who is 81 years old, and Brian Hewitt who turns 92 in April.

“Back then, we were talking about a way to do something for those in need, and Louis came up with the idea of the B.C. Children’s Hospital. Our children never needed to go there luckily, but we wanted to help children in need and we felt it was the best place to do so,” Mae Vinneau, told Houston Today.

“It feels really good that we’ve been able to give back in such a way over the years,” she continued.

READ MORE: Raising funds through cans in Houston

The group collects bottles from a wide variety of sources in Granisle and Houston. Vinneau, who lives in Granisle, has people drop of bags full of bottles to donate regularly. The same goes for Brian Hewitt who lives in Houston. In addition, the group collects bottles from the Babine barge, and the Coop Dogs trailer park near Babine Lake.

“We also pick up bottles from ditches and around town, wherever they’re left out we try to pick them up,” said Vinneau.

All the bottles are picked up and sorted into proper bags, where they’re taken to the Houston bottle depot to be sorted. This is done on a regular bases, and every dollar accumulated goes into a bank account. Once the account gets over $1,000, the money is donated.

READ MORE: Donation through recycling in Houston

“Right now, we have donated $19,400 to date. The next time we get to over $1,000 in our account will put us over $20,000. It should happen in the next few weeks,” said Vinneau.

The We Care Group has no intention of stopping at the milestone either. “We’re going to keep doing it until we’re unable to anymore, there’s no set time to stop. We want to continue helping children as long as we can,” Vinneau said.

Quite the feat for two people well into their senior years.

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Eddie Huband
Multimedia Reporter
eddie.huband@ldnews.net
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