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Dunk Disposal holding 6th Annual Christmas Donation Drive pickup

December 7, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

The team at Dunk Disposal is gearing up for their annual Christmas Donation Drive, set for Thursday, Dec. 14.

The drive is a one-day pickup and covers multiple areas in and around Dufferin County.

The owner of Dunk Disposal, Cameron Dunkerley, told the Citizen that donations will be collected “All through Shelburne, Orangeville, Erin, Caledon, Tottenham and Brampton.”

In response to our surprise at the last name (Brampton), given the distance to get there, he explained. “We have a lot of customers there, repeat customers, and we let all of our customers know what we’re doing and then use social media and the paper to tell everyone else.”

For a one-day pickup is the goal, “Do it all at once,” he insisted. “If we have to add another truck, we are still hoping to do everything in one day.”

Their list of donations to collect includes strictly non-perishable food items and unopened toys in sealed packages or boxes. Otherwise, things can become dirty, and the charities insist on them being in sealed packages.

The food goes to the Orangeville Food Bank, and the rest is delivered to the Toys for Tots program in Caledon.

“Last year it was great,” Cameron Dunkerley was happy to say. “We doubled the food collection and we’re hoping to increase that this year.”

As this reflects on their business, Mr. Dunkerley reckoned it is great, saying, “We aim to do a lot of community initiative.

“I enjoy getting them up and planning, recycling, donations, organizing all that. I have a passion for that. It is good in the community and we enjoy doing it.

“This is our sixth Christmas Dunk Disposal Donation Drive,” he told us.

For the last few years, Dunk Disposal has been in a growth phase, with the offer of more trucks, if need be. Usually, the demands of the business can be handled by operating three trucks, but the company has a fourth truck ready for the spring.

When we asked about the massive influx of hundreds of new subdivision houses, Cameron Dunkerley reported that their company does not do “a ton of service in the new neighbourhoods.”

They have noticed they don’t do as much work in those areas as elsewhere, but he is convinced this Christmas pickup is a service for people new in the communities. It does give them an opportunity to be involved, and Dunk Disposal is trying to promote the service on as many platforms as it can.

With the caution to only bite off as much as they can chew, there is still the drive to service more people by hiring more staff to help them do more of these events.

“We really want to let people know that we are a local service, reliable and hard-working,” said Dunkerly.

With the approach of the slower winter months comes time to do a lot of planning and preparation. To take advantage of the time freed until the work goes from slower to very busy, they spend it just preparing and planning.

We talked about the beneficial influence their three or four drives per year have on the business itself.

“In my opinion,” Mr. Dunkerley began, “we do what we do, that’s how we have built this business, with an exchange of goodwill. The bike drives, donating bikes to be repurposed and useful again, even if they were just clutter in someone’s garage.”

He emphasized that homeowners are giving on their own schedule. They may not have the time otherwise to search and find where the places that accept donations are.

“We just want to make that easier for them,” he pressed on to say. “Everyone along the line with everybody benefitting.” And he admitted openly, “I don’t think our business would be doing as well is, if we didn’t do these events.”

There were calls in November from people who know about the Dunk Donation pickup from previous years to say they already had their donations for collection.

Dec. 14 is the day when Dunk Disposal will drive its trucks far and wide to pick up non-perishable foods and unopened and wrapped toys. 

If you plan to donate, please let Dunk Disposal know where you are located a few days ahead.

Learn more at www.dunkdisposal.ca or call Dunk Disposal at 905-766-9008.

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