By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
It’s the perfect combination for peak contentment: decluttering your house and making a donation for the betterment of the community. What could bring a better feeling than that? For the fifth year, Grace United Church has partnered up with PaperSavers to provide the people of Burlington with this very beneficial experience. Forget lighting a campfire or letting the dog tear the papers to bits. Do a clean sweep of all of your desk drawers and prepare to be easily and permanently rid of it all at the Grace United Church’s Document Shredding Event.
This outdoor charity shred party is arranged to be hosted on the church’s premises at 2111 Walkers Line on September 14, 2024. From 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., anyone in the area will be given the opportunity to dispose of any and all unnecessary old paper documents that may be lying around their homes, taking up space, and collecting hordes of dust. This includes banking and credit card statements, tax forms, business bookkeeping forms, legal files, bills, investment records, or anything else that no longer has a viable place in your filing system. If you have old pictures you’re ready to be separated from, bring them too. A team of volunteers will assist you at the location. Parking is free!
It’s promised to be a secure, environmentally friendly, and affordable means of shredding anything that contains private or confidential information. PaperSavers is a reliable company that has been providing shredding services in Ontario since 1991. For the reasonable price of $5 for a grocery bag full of paper, or $10 for a banker’s box, you can watch with acute satisfaction as your paperwork gets annihilated on site via a monitor on the side of a shredding truck. A certificate of destruction can be provided by request. It’s one piece of paper exchanged for many.
“This September we will have two trucks to keep up with demand as we do not want to disappoint anyone,” says Susan Ward-England, the coordinator of this unique event. “Last year we had 228 people come to drop off paper. While some only had a single grocery bag, others had multiple boxes. You can take your boxes and bags home with you.”
Despite many banking and administrative services going digital, Grace United Church once again expects a monumental turnout to rival the other years and plenty of paper to feed to the shredders.
“We have noticed that each year we collect more shredding than the year before,” Ward-England comments further. “Yes, we all hope to be paperless, but we still have boxes of old taxes hanging out in the corners of the basement or in the backs of our closets. We offer a safe, simple, and fast way to have these items destroyed safely.”
This isn’t the Grace United Church’s only upcoming plan to help the people of Burlington dispose of their obsolete objects. In the spring of 2025, they hope to organize an event for recycling old electronics around Earth Day. Anyone who wishes to support the Grace United Church and their work can also participate in their forthcoming spring tea, Mega Used Book Sale, and Candy Cane Traditions Christmas Craft sale.
Grace United Church requests that all payments for the Document Shredding Event be made by cash or cheque. All proceeds will go towards the church’s efforts to provide charitable services to the community. It’s a small amount to pay for a big relief. You’ll never have to sift through all those documents again!
