OPINION: Seniors know how to shred it!

Maybe it was the beautiful Saturday morning, the excellent media coverage or perhaps the post-tax deadline date, but whatever it was, it was a hit!

The Maricopa Senior Advisory Committee hosted its sixth annual Shred-a-Thon April 20 at Copper Sky Regional Park. It partnered with the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, which sponsored the document shredding truck after AARP was unable to fund the truck again this year.

Unlike prior years when the Shred-a-Thon was held in February, event chair Elizabeth Howell and the Senior Advisory Committee chose a date after the tax deadline to meet requests from the community. In prior years, the event was held for four hours. Unfortunately, this year, the shredding truck could only be sponsored for two hours.

The event was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. but the cars were lined up at 8:15 a.m. and they were bumper-to bumper until 10:30 a.m. The morning heat and the steady drop off rate of paper to be shredded backed up the truck so much that a second truck was recruited. The volunteers processed the dropped off shredding until 2 p.m. — three hours after the last car came through.

Maricopa Police Department was on site for an expired prescription drug collection and as volunteers to assist with the traffic flow and shredding. Even Police Chief Mark Goodman was there as a volunteer. He assisted the process until the last canopy came down at 2 p.m.

In addition to the police volunteers, there were volunteers from the F.O.R. food bank, the Senior Advisory Committee, Maricopa City Council, the Pinal County Attorney’s Office and the Maricopa High School AFJROTC cadets who have been so helpful in supporting this event over the past years.

The result — around 13,000 pounds of shredding was accomplished. That’s about a 40% increase over prior years with 263 cars going through the line — 146 more cars than last year in half the time.

In addition to the document shredding, the event also collected 1,500 pounds of food and nearly $500 in food bank cash donations. This year’s outdated or unused drug collection opportunity for residents resulted in 109 cars dropping off drugs for safe destruction.

Great job, Maricopa Senior Advisory Committee — you shredded it!

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