One of Newtown’s quiet heroes is moving on, bringing to an end a one-woman bottle and can collection effort that raised thousands of dollars over the past 2½ years for service organizations.

Betty Presnell told The Newtown Bee this week she is going to close the bottle and can drive she has spearheaded, not because public interest has waned but because she and her husband are relocating to be closer to other family members.

Standing beside her son Michael and Leslie Basile, a friend who she said helps “a lot,” a teary Presnell told FAITH Food Pantry volunteers the news when she visited there Tuesday morning. Fittingly, she arrived carrying envelopes filled with change and currency, representing redeemed bottles and cans that had been given to her for her project.

The October 11 visit to the nondenominational pantry marked the final time the longtime resident dropped by with a donation, moving the needle on her fundraising efforts for just this one recipient to just over the $9,000 mark.

Maintaining the quiet humility she has always displayed when conveying her donations, Presnell would not take singular credit for the work.

“It’s not just me, honey,” she said in the southern twang that has not left her accent despite living in Newtown for more than 60 years. “I have a lot of help. Everybody drops off their bottles and cans, and then Michael and I or Richard and I turn them in,” she said, referring to her son and husband, respectively.

The collection started in July 2020 when Presnell was serving as the president of Nunnawauk Meadows Residents Association (NMRA).

At the time, she was brainstorming for a way she and others in the community could make $1,500 — the average earned each year through the association’s two-day tag and bake sale.

The summer event had been the major fundraiser for the general NMRA account used to pay for guest speakers and programs. But in 2020, the event was among the first in town to be cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

When she came up with the idea of the bottle and can drive, Presnell hit on a winner. After putting the word out on local social network sites, residents of all ages began contacting her with their offers of cans and bottles they were happy to give up.

Within a few months, Presnell collected enough returnables to cover the loss created by the cancellation.

When donations continued arriving, however, she continued turning in bottles and cans — photographing every receipt and sharing them on her Facebook page — and turning over every nickel to others. In addition to the residents’ fund and the food pantry, Presnell has donated $500 to Families United in Newtown (FUN), the American Cancer Society, and the Juvenile Diabetes Association, among others.

She had said repeatedly she would continue redeeming bottles and cans, and making corresponding donations to nonprofits, as long as her fellow Newtown residents continued to offer their bottles and cans.

Final Donations Earmarked

As word started spreading among volunteers at the food pantry during her final visit earlier this week, most stopped their work and made time to talk with and hug Presnell. She welcomed each with a mixture of tears, laughter, and returned hugs.

Final donations for Betty Presnell’s bottle and can drive are being accepted through Friday, October 21.

Clean, rinsed donations can be delivered to 1-D Nunnawauk Meadows, 3 Nunnawauk Road. From Nunnawauk Road, use the second entrance into the complex, driving behind the community building; at the gazebo, look to the right, toward the east-southeast, for Presnell’s unit.

Presnell is hoping to reach the $500 mark one final time, to donate to Hawleyville Volunteer Fire Company. She has given similar donations to the town’s four other volunteer fire companies, as well as Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

“I can’t leave them out,” she said of Hawleyville Fire.

Tuesday morning, FFP Vice President Jill LeBlanc surprised Presnell with a blue pullover that had the pantry’s logo knitted on it. It was, said LeBlanc, a thank you gift on behalf of the pantry.

“We should have given you one of these long ago,” LeBlanc said. “You’ve done so much for all of us.”

The women had a good laugh too. As LeBlanc was finding a sweatshirt in the correct size for Presnell, FFP volunteer Laura Hewitt hurried toward Presnell, carrying a bag of returnable plastic bottles.

“I can’t let you leave without these!” Hewitt said.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.