Senior Collects Cans for 30 Years to Build Community Pool (video)
Here is something you don’t see much these days: positive news.
Written by geri
An 83-year-old Kansas woman spent 30 years driving open roads, picking up aluminum cans, in a single-handed effort to raise enough money to build a community swimming pool for the children in her home town of Eskridge. For more than three decades, Maisie DeVore, gathered and deliver cans, scrap metal and car parts to a recycling facility. Can by can, year after year, she earned $73,000 and received a matching grant to raise the rest. Says Maisie, “If you really want something and pursue it with all your mind, you’ll get it done one way or another.” Here’s a video featuring her and the pick-up truck, and that Kansas can-do attitude…(link)
Contribute to the pool fund to help with maintenance, or find out more information at: www.maisiespool.com
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ShadowFox
That’s awesome.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:28 ambmnrocks
And over the past 30 years, has spent $70,000 on fuel and repairs to her vehicle.
March 17th, 2007 at 10:28 pmCharles
Wow, that determination. Well done ma’am!
March 17th, 2007 at 10:31 pmAdrian
Is it just me, or could she have bought it herself with all the gas money she spent?
March 17th, 2007 at 11:53 pmWild Bill
Welcome Diggers thanks for stopping by. Make sure to explore the website and checkout The Passionate America Show Podcast.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:40 amToe
Dont be so soft, LISTEN!!!
Once a month, 40 miles, 30 years = 14400 miles.
Given an average of 20 miles per gallon (which is a bit high) this is 720 gallons of fuel. Lets take a large estimate of average cost over the last 30 years of $4 per gallon. this gives a total fuel cost of $2880, which is a little less than $70k!
Don’t tarnish a life accomplishment with pathetic whims.
March 18th, 2007 at 2:46 amWild Bill
Thank you Toe. Her story is inspirational and does not deserve to be diminished. We need more people like Maisie DeVore.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:26 amJohn Bambenek
Great reporting on this Bill.
j
March 18th, 2007 at 8:28 amPart-Time Pundit
FIAR
Is it just me, or could she have bought it herself with all the gas money she spent?
She only drove 40 miles/month. All of you tards asking about how much gas she used, probably about the same amount many people use in a single day driving to and from work. How many of you drive that far in just one or two days to and from work? My guess would be a majority? Now, how many of you bother to pick up the trash on the side of the road as you do it?
*Crickets*
Thought so. STFU.
March 18th, 2007 at 10:03 amVette
As noble as her cause is, this women is incredibly stupid, why didnt she just get a job 30 years ago and buy the pool with 2 or 3 years salary instead of wasting half her damn life.
March 18th, 2007 at 11:17 amHeadnoises
Vette- Yes, that’s what she should have done, at 53 she should have gone out, found a job and donated everything to charity, if she could find a place that would hire her.
How about you take your bitter resentment and go away until you can admire sacrifice?
March 18th, 2007 at 12:37 pmZahid Khan
Like Maisie, I read about this incredible feat of human spirit when I was in India last summer:
http://ajitchouhan.blogspot.com/2007/01/man-who-moved-mountain.html
Tired of walking around a mountain to get to the village center and tired of waiting for government help, Dashrath Manjhi tore open a 300-feet-high hill to create a one-km passage. It took him 22 years and he did it all with a Hammer and Tong!
Really inspiring story. You have to read it.
March 18th, 2007 at 3:32 pmChris Tompson
Wow, What a waste of a life collecting cans..although her cause was good, It was a pretty dumb way to come up with the money.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:47 pmFIAR
Wow, What a waste of a life insulting a lady that did something for her community.
March 18th, 2007 at 7:02 pmellis
Waste of a life doing that? Doing something for kid to have something that brings so much happiness and for her to be remembered in that community.. She didn’t go out begging people for money - she raised it on her own - which is quite the task and I totally think she should be recognized for what she has done.
March 18th, 2007 at 8:45 pmbmnrocks
Now seriously, we can all use a calculator, my comment was obviously a joke, and the fact that she did it is amazing, what is even more amazing is that she is still doing it to keep up with the costs of maintenance.
March 23rd, 2007 at 7:11 pmfanok
Heanoises..it is NOT hard at all for a 53 year old to get a job. Maybe not a great one, but one that pays a lot more htan collecting cans.
Seriously..what planet do you live on where you think that a 53 year old is considered useless by all employers?
March 30th, 2007 at 1:23 amMuhammad Siyab
Wow. That is a prime example of having the determination and patience and being perseverant to, obtain what you believe in, against a mountain of odds.
I salute you, madam!
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 pmWild Bill
I wish I had a grandma like her. Thanks for the comment Siyab.
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:22 pm