Pen Donation Center – Page 4 – Pen Guy Art | Mercedes Pens Art Car by Costas Schuler

July 30, 2009

Redwood Gospel Mission Thrift Store – Pen Recycling Center – City Kids Festival, August 22, 2009

Good news, the Redwood Gospel Mission Thrift Store has just agreed to become a pen recycling drop off center for the one million pen drive. There will be a two bins, one located inside the thrift store and the other one in the back were donations are dropped off. So remember, don’t just throw away all those dead ball points, dry erase and marker pens, instead recycle them along with your other donations at the Mission Thrift Store on 1064 Piner Ave. in Santa Rosa, Mon – Sat, 10 am to 6 pm.

Alice Lowe who agreed to collect pens for the Million Pen Drive is the outreach and fundraising events and is also the contact person for the City Kids Festival that will happening Saturday August 22, 2009, at Juliard Park in Santa Rosa. The City Kids Festival is an all-day outreach, primarily to needy children in Sonoma County. There will be Free backpacks and school supplies! Free books! Balloon animals, miniature golf, snow cones, face painting and much more more! Many Sonoma County churches volunteer their time and effort and money to provide the supplies for the kids and run game and food booths during the event. In 2008 1800 backpacks were given away and this year they expect more that 2000 boys and girls to attend. The event is free and open to all with no charge for the games and food. The free backpacks are given to those children who pre-register for them at RGM.They are also currently accepting donations for more school supplies needed for the City Kids Festival.

I have had the pleasure of attending this event with my Mercedes Pens now for past couple of years and plan to be there again this year hanging out as the Pen Guy. This event would also be good time for you to come out with your kids and drop off any old pens that you would love to get rid off.

July 23, 2009

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

June 24, 2009

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.

June 9, 2009

O’Reilly Media Recycling Pens for the Pen Guy

O’Reilly Media Tarsier Sculpture by Patrick Amiot

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

O’Reilly Media just agreed to collect old pens for me the Pen Guy for my million pen project that I will be working on in the next 5-10 years. My plan is to collect millions of pens to create works of art that will then go on display at various locations around the country, and that’s just to start with. My other big goal is to begin exploring other pen possibilities in solving future problems such as affordable energy efficient housing. Would it be possible to build an entire house from recycled pens and markers or at least a big part of it??? Who knows what is possible right now, but we will never know unless someone starts asking questions.

Having O’Reilly Media on board with such big project is a big deal to me and an example to other business who might want to join in the Green Pen Revolution and help keep a few million pens out of the dump in the coming years. They collect old batteries and have a Goodwill donation drop off, why not pens? My contact within O’Reilly told me that she sent out a company wide email letting everyone know that old pens are now a wanted commodity by yours truly. I can’t wait to pickup my first batch of recycled pens. To all of you at O’Reilly Media thank you for dreaming big with me, because without dreamers the world would be a boring place.

May 26, 2009

Forestville Water District Now a Pen Donation Center

Pens Donated by the Forestville Water District

Well folks its official, the Forestville Water District has now become the official Pen Donation Center for the town of Forestville CA. If you get your water in Forestville, which by the way is the best tasting water I have ever had, you can always drop your old pens next time you have to pay your water bill. Today I picked up a box of pens and inside were some really cool old pens and a big huge one donated by the FWD office.