Category: Pen Donations

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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.

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Donated Pens – Silver Spur Elementary and The Green Team

Donated Pens From Silver Spur Elementary
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.

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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.

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Frame of Mind Pen from Forestville

Frame of Mind Pen from Forestville on the trunk of the Mercedes Pens
Frame of Mind Pen from Forestville on the trunk of the Mercedes Pens
I run into Leslie Zumwalt owner of Frame of Mind in Forestville Ca Today. She is this years Forestville Parade organizer and asked me if I was going to be in the parade tomorrow. I don’t think I can make it since last week was Maker and next weekend I am going the Harmony Festival 2009 in Santa Rosa Ca. Anyways Frame of Mind is local frame shop and art gallery right down town and features some of the most interesting local art you can imagine. Actually one year they entered a motorized couch with a frame around it to promote their business, and that same year the parade was so small they went around twice.