Don Sheather has an eye for opportunity and this year his choice to support Operation Christmas Child saw him forage garbage bins at Club Taree Golf Club.
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The keen golfer would drive from his home in Old Bar to play a round of golf and at every tee he would look in the garbage bin to search for Coca-Cola bottles.
The club has 27 tees and Don laughs as he recalls his bin-diving days at the golf club, “I'm sure people thought I was crazy!”
Don is part of a dynamic duo that works to create and donate numerous boxes to Operation Christmas Child each year.
His wife Dawn is currently working to fill around 40 boxes and Don’s decision to bin-dive for Coca-Cola bottles was to enable him to collect labels for redemption in the 2016 Coke Rewards promotion.
Don and Dawn’s daughter introduced them to the promotion that encouraged people to collect label tokens to redeem for Coca-Cola themed products, but Don says it was a game of golf with a mate in Hawks Nest that compelled him to act.
“He was looking in all the bins on the course and I said, ‘What are you doing?!’
“He said he was collecting labels off Coca-Cola bottles to get Coke Rewards and that’s when I thought, it might be a good idea for Dawn and Operation Christmas Child.”
Don says they had hoped to secure yo-yo’s but as they were not available they decided to work towards collecting labels for sunglasses that could be worn by the children who would receive an Operation Christmas Child box.
The Coke Rewards promotion attached a value of 150 points to a pair of glasses and each label was worth 10 points.
Don says he began the campaign in earnest about 12 months ago, asking friends to keep labels, looking for bottles on his walks around Old Bar and searching the bins at Club Taree Gold Club.
“I don’t drink much Coke, maybe two bottles a week so we needed to look elsewhere. You could only put in 10 labels a week but I easily got my 10 and I managed to earn 36 glasses.”
The 36 glasses will be added to 36 Operation Christmas Child boxes as the ‘Something Special’ item.
Each box must contain an item that represents something to love; something for school; something to wear; something to play with; something for personal hygiene and something special.
In 2015 Manning Valley residents contributed 2819 boxes to Operation Christmas Child and Don says the goal for 2016 is more than 3000 boxes.
People can work to fill boxes until late October.
To secure an Operation Christmas Child box please contact Karen Reeman 0400 748 415 or Frances Barberie on 6552 2985. For specific information about what can be gifted in the boxes please visit https://www.samaritanspurse.org.au/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child
