Pen Guy Lecture at Sebastopol Senior Center
The Pen Guy posing with donated pens inside the Mercedes Pens
Last Tuesday I had the privilege of doing my first “Lecture” at the Sebastopol Area Senior Center who provide activities, classes and events for adults of all ages. My lecture was really a short visit to talk about the Mercedes Pens Art Car and the my future plans to collect a million pens collect and have a couple of root beer floats:) It was a lot of fun and after wards we went down to the Pen Car to take a closer look inside. I was invited to come by Emily Webster who also publicized the lecture in the Bohemian including a mug shot in the front to my complete surprise. The day after I got this great email from Emily and this is what she had to say about it.
“Aren’t you wonderful! Good job here at the Senior Center . You are a good personality, energetic and very very likable. Everyone is for you. We all want to see you succeed with your wonderful pen ideas. We want to see you all over the world collecting pens. Oh, by the way, thanks for volunteering your time here. We all had a great time with you.”-Emily Webster
85 year old man inadvertently donates his pens
This box came to me me wrapped in blue wrapping paper all the way from Sweet Home Oregon with a great story. The box came wrapped in blue paper and once I tore open the box I found this great note sent in by Jill.
“Dear Pen Guy,
A good friend of mine who is 85 years old recently had to move away from his home to go stay with his children. Once he was moved out I was asked to clean the house to get it ready for its new owners. In the back corner of a closet I found this box, and when I opened it I saw more pens than I had ever seen before in one place! It was amazing! It seemed that for the past 10 years or so he had kept every pen he had ever owned, even after it had run out of ink.
I hope these can be used in your artwork. I know my friend will be happy to know that all his old pens went to a good place:)”
Thanks for what you do!
-Jill W.
Wow what a great story, I think that has to be the first one of its kind. I was thinking about it the other day and I realized that every pen has a story to tell. Imagine if you could capture all the things that were written, from the mundane shopping list to the life changing invention. I think it would be great if people started sending their pens and a story written about it.
Donated Pens – Silver Spur Elementary and The Green Team
Donated Pens From Silver Spur Elementary
These pens came a couple of weeks ago from Merin D. a parent from Silver Spur Elementary School in Rancho Palos Verders, CA. Merin is also part of The Green Team an interactive educational program to help students and teachers to help the environment through waste reduction, reuse, recycling and composting. These are but a few of the pens she collected last year but Merin volunteered to incorporate collecting old pens at Silver Spur as part of her crayon and glue stick recycling program. Merin thank so much and may you be the first of many around the country who are willing to take the time to collect and send in their old pens for the million pen project.
Pick of the Litter Silent Auction with Debbie Abrams & Brent Farris – June 28th, 2009
Video of my trip to pick pens up from the Pick of the Litter Thrift Store
I really can’t say enough good things about Pick of the Litter, a thrift shop dedicated to getting feral cats off the streets and finding loving homes for the forgotten felines of the Santa Rosa community. They have a spay/neuter program for tame, stray cats and formerly feral kittens pulled from the wild; Then they give them the opportunity to go through “Good Samaritan” clinics. There is a nominal fee for this service, but for the most part it is subsidized through a bequest left by Jean Mekemson.
To make a long story short Pick of the Litter has has basically adopted me the Pen Guy and have now for over two years collected stray pens and given them to me for the Mercedes Pens Art Car Project. I went in there one day looking for old dead pens and now go there every couple of weeks to collect a big bag of recycled pens that would otherwise get thrown in the garbage. The video I did was on one of those days when I went to pick up some pens.
They are having a fundraiser this Sunday June 28th from 11a.m – 4p.m, called Pick of the Litter’s Rollin’ out the Red Carpet & Puttin’ on the Ritz! a Celebrity Silent Auction featuring donations by Debbie Abrams, Guy Fieri, Levi Leipheimer and Odessa Gunn “What does Debbie do?” Luxury Silent Auction. There will be Music by North of Malibu and special guests Debbie Abrams & Brent Farris of KZST. Pick of the Litter was voted Sonoma County’s Favorite Thrift Store by KZST Listeners and so KZST is promoting the event all week. Hope to see you all there, go an support a great cause, and don’t forget to bring all your old and unwatned pens.