Chuck Zobrist inspects a bag of bottles and cans dropped off by a neighbor. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Chuck Zobrist doesn’t drink much soda or beer.
But the 80-year-old has become a fixture at the North Salem Bottle Drop, where he turned in more than 18,000 cans and bottles last year.
Zobrist uses the bottle refunds for a variety of charitable activities, but his focus is putting a Thanksgiving meal on the table for about 20 local families. He buys turkey, ham, potatoes, a pumpkin pie and more, puts together a basket and drops it off right before the holiday.
“When I get to $50, I don’t say, ‘That’s fifty dollars.’ I say, ‘That’s another family,’” he said.
Chuck Zobrist sorts empty bottles and cans dropped off by a neighbor. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
His project started by accident about a decade ago when Zobrist was visiting Wilson House, an assisted living facility, with members of his Exchange Club, a service organization.
He started talking to a resident, Dottie, who mentioned that a young North Salem High School student delivered her groceries. The girl’s family was struggling to make ends meet, and Dottie wondered if the club could do something to help them with Thanksgiving.
Zobrist told her, “I’m not sure the club will do anything about it, but I will.”
He went out, bought a turkey, ham and potatoes, and delivered them. When he went to the girl’s home, he found the family sitting in the cold on the couch, covered in blankets.
The following year, Zobrist again saw Dottie at Wilson House. She told him the girl had stopped delivering for her after his act of kindness, perhaps because she’d been embarrassed. So Zobrist decided to get more systematic, and reached out to local charities for ideas about who to help.
Now, he gathers names from groups like Easter Seals and from relatives like his son, who works for the state employment office. Fellow Exchange Club members help him make deliveries as far away at Mt. Angel and Jefferson.
“We’ve gone all over the Valley,” Zobrist said.
Zobrist lives in Salemtowne, a community for active seniors in West Salem. He’s retired after a career in the maintenance department of the Oregon School for the Deaf, where he learned American Sign Language from the students.
He’s known among neighbors for his zealous collection of their bottles and cans.
“If you give him a phone call, within five minutes he’ll come to your house. He’ll stop dinner and come to your house to pick up a bag of cans,” said Jeanette Scott, another Salemtowne resident.
A trash can outside Chuck Zobrist’s home in Salemtowne, where Zobrist collects bottles for charity. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
His income from the cans more than covers Thanksgiving dinners, so he’s started branching out into other acts of service.
This year, he took 55 students from low-income families to Fordyce Farm for Halloween. He also provides Fourth of July and New Year’s pizza dinners at the WestCare Home for Heroes, a transitional housing project for veterans.
Zobrist estimates he spends about 10 hours a week collecting and returning cans. He makes three or four trips weekly to Bottle Drop and has gotten to know the other regulars, many of whom are homeless and live along the river.
“They’re all very nice guys,” he said.
Scott said his efforts are appreciated around the neighborhood.
“He’s about the happiest man I know and I believe it’s because he’s all about doing helpful things for people,” she said.
Reporter Rachel Alexander: (503) 575-1241 or [email protected].
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
