One Bottle, Two Bottle… All For Leukemia Research

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Did you know that cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Canada? One in four Canadians will die from some sort of cancer. Leukemia is the most common childhood cancer, making up 33% of all new cases. In addition, an estimated two-thirds of all children who survive the disease have chronic or late-occurring effects from their cancer therapy, many of these effects are seriously debilitating or life threatening. Here’s your chance to positively contribute to the lives of these children.

On May 29th and 30th, The Beer Store is holding their annual Returns for Leukemia fundraiser. The bottle drive will give you the option of having your returns (and extra cash, if you feel so inclined) go towards researching leukemia and lymphoma, two diseases that wreak havoc with your blood.

The drive, organized by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 12R24, netted over $830,000 in 2009. The UFCW and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada hope to raise $1,000,000 this year, and are asking beer-drinkers to save up their empties, collect from neighbours and friends, and bring them all in during the last weekend of this month. If you want to get involved even more, you can volunteer your time at your local beer store, and greet customers and help collect the empties.

Our city has been pretty successful collecting for this fundraiser in the past, with over $42,000 in donations in the 2009 campaign. Two Windsor Beer Stores made it in the top 25 for total donations made and four local stores topped the list for the total amount of empty bottles collected.

This success is due in part to a couple of friends/Beer Store employees, Stephen Hawkins and Nick Russel. These two Beer Store veterans figured they’d see more community involvement if they worked together, rather than have one store competing against the other. By coordinating teams and finding retail sponsors to donate raffle prizes, they were able to promote the event and the result was a bigger turnout at each of the city’s beer stores.

Help maintain Windsor’s giving spirit by saving your empties and returning them on May 29th and 30th!

For more information, you can visit the Facebook event page for the Windsor drive, and you can also join a Facebook group dedicated to the fundraiser.