By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
The Polly Ann Trail and Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance need your empty cans and bottles this March.
Starting March 7 and ending March 31, people can drop off bags of bottles and cans outside the Oxford Village Police Department’s garage at 22 W. Burdick St. to help fund repairs to the Polly Ann Trail and programs for Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance.
“This is the second time we have paired up with the Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance group,” Linda Moran, Polly Ann Trail Manager, said. “We split the money 50/50.”
A bottle drives in 2020 raised $26,980 and another drive in 2021 raised about $4,000.
The Polly Ann Trail aims to use their share of the money raised to help cover the cost of grants.
“We are going after some pretty large grants to improve our parking lots, to increase the trail users’ experience out on the trail and to do some repairs,” Moran said. “That money goes to help match our grant requests because you have to have 25% to match grants to get any money from states and different funders.”
Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance will use their portion to buy supplies for the kids in the program and pay for fun activities like an end-of-year pizza party.
“Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance is for kids that are in trouble [and] need help,” Moran said. “Some of them are referred to the organization through the court system. A lot of them are from teachers. Parents can refer students that need help. Police officers in the village can refer children to the program. It is like a preemptive strike to help children get on the straight-and-narrow.”
The two programs work together with the Polly Ann Trail providing community service outlets for kids taking part in the Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance program.
More information about the Polly Ann Trail and Oxford-Addison Youth Assistance can be found at pollyanntrailway.org and oxfordaddisonya.org, respectively. Those looking to make monetary donations can drop checks off at the Oxford Township offices at 300 Dunlap Road.