BY ADELLE LAMOUR
Under bright fluorescent lights, coins splash onto a stainless steel surface, clattering shopping carts rumble by and high-pitched electronic beeps chirp out against scrunching sounds of plastic bags.
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Arthur Chevrier, 71, collects grocery store receipts at the A&P in the South End. The Save-A-Tape program raises money for charities. |
A blend of taped music and mingling voices provides a soothing background wash to the main activity at checkout counters in the A&P grocery store on Regent Street.
Amidst the clamour and hubbub there sits an older, unassuming gentleman with a handful of grocery tapes.
As people leave the checkout stalls, they stop and hand him the receipts from their recently purchased groceries. Some who would have gone out another exit turn back to offer their tapes.
He smiles, greets and converses with the customers before they leave the store.
Arthur Chevrier, 71, originally started saving tapes for the Cancer Care program. Now, he has a long list of charitable organizations for which he raises money.
He has spent most of his life participating in volunteer activities.
Born and raised in the Sudbury area, Chevrier and his wife, Laurette, raised 11 children while he worked at Inco Ltd. for almost 38 years before leaving on disability compensation due to two knee replacements.
During some 20 of those years, Chevrier served on the Youth Bowling Council in different capacities at Holiday Lanes. He also volunteered his time at the Sudbury Regional Hospital, Laurentian Site, in the Complex Care Unit, providing companionship for people with long-term illnesses. He has been a captain with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, campaigning door to door for more than a decade.
He is quite a collector. He has also collected Campbell?s Soup labels for the Canadian Hearing Society, and he used to collect pop tabs for wheelchairs ? one ton buys one chair.
?All you have to do is put the word out and people bring them to you,? Chevrier said. ?At the end of this year, I will have been collecting tapes for 17 years.?
Chevrier donates six days a week, about 185 hours a month, to the Save-A-Tape program. That works out to more than 40 hours a week, equivalent to a full-time job.
The time includes the hours it takes to add up the tapes, as well as the time he spends at A&P collecting them.
From Monday to Friday, he spends four hours in the morning adding up tape values. After lunch, he collects tapes from approximately 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sometimes, he?ll come back for an hour or so after supper.
On Saturdays, he spends the entire day from 9:30 in the morning until five in the afternoon at the store.
?Saturdays are busy shopping days,? Chevrier said.
If he is ever asked why he is there, he whips out his little black book. It not only indicates all the different organizations for which he saves tapes, but
it shows a record of all of his accumulated hours over the years.
The Save-A-Tape program is sponsored and carried out through A&P, Dominion and Ultra Food and Drug stores. Only non-profit, community-based organizations can participate.
A one year time allowance is given from the date the application is approved. Every $450 in cash register tapes earns one dollar in cash.
In order to raise the maximum $1,000 allowed per charity, a total of $450,000 in tapes must be collected.
When the tapes are sorted into bundles of $1,000 each, they are taken to the store manager and submitted.
Once the tapes are received and processed, a cheque is mailed to the contact person of the non-profit organization. Only one application can be submitted per year.
Chevrier has worked his way into the heart of A&P store manager Margaret Halinen.
When asked how she feels about Chevrier collecting tapes in the store, she replied: ?I absolutely love it. He?s done an excellent job for the cancer society.?
?When I started collecting tapes, the return was one dollar earned for every $300 saved in grocery tapes,? Chevrier said.
?In 1992, it changed to one dollar earned for every $450 saved in tapes.?
Yvonne Cayer, co-ordinator of Volunteer Services at the Laurentian Site of the Sudbury Regional Hospital Foundation, has been a consistent recipient of Chevrier?s volunteer efforts with the Save-A-Tape program.
?They used to call Art the ?Miracle Man? because he originally collected Miracle Mart tapes,? Cayer said. ?Up to now, his total volunteer hours total 32,300.?
The hospital has received approximately $16,000 over the years.
?Originally, the money went to cancer care, but now it goes to the Heart and Soul Campaign,? Cayer said.
?Art is a super person and an outstanding volunteer. We appreciate his support.?
Joe Drago, chair of the Sudbury Regional Hospital Foundation, has been involved with the hospital for over 20 years.
?There has been no one who has been more dedicated and more committed to the fundraising cause than Art,? Drago said.
Chevrier can collect $450,000 in tapes in about eight to 10 weeks.
He possesses an assortment of thank-you notes from the different organizations. Many explain what the money has been spent on and how it has helped their causes. They also express their need for future donations.
When asked why he donates to all these organizations, his answer is simple.
?I had all these tapes. I didn?t want to throw them out.?
The fundraising is all done by word of mouth.
?I like what I do,? Chevrier said. ?I meet a lot of people and it gets me out of the house.?
As the stack of grocery tapes grows in Chevrier?s out-stretched hand, the total amount draws nearer to his goal of $450,000.
He checks his black book and prepares to call another non-profit organization which will be the fortunate recipient of Chevrier?s time, energy and
dedication.
This story is reprinted from the Oct. 7 edition of The Cambrian Shield.
