Nancy Faber named Lynden's Women of the Year

Here is the article that came out in the Lynden Tribune today....although it took Lynden 20years to figure out she's the women of the year...we've known for a long time! Good job mom...we love you!!

 LYNDEN -- How does one describe the city of Lynden to somebody with no clue about the town? After 20 years of residency, one Lyndenite believes that community members’ loyalty to the town shapes Lynden’s unique personality. Nancy Faber, Lynden Christian School’s Cash From Trash program director, is a prime example. Faber has been chosen a 2006 Sol Lewis Award winner for her work as coordinator of the school’s recycling fundraiser program. The other winner is Jim Kaemingk. To commend their efforts, a public evening reception will be held at the Lynden Pioneer Museum on Jan. 25. “I’ve lived in four different states for a period of several years, but I’ve never run across a town quite like the city of Lynden,” Faber said. “Not too many communities have the loyalty base that this city has in its senior citizens, schools, museum, library, Rotary, Lions Club and the many churches. It’s truly amazing.” Faber’s portrayal of Lynden might come as a surprise considering it’s based on her experience with none other than “trash” -- ranging from cardboard cereal box tops to coffee can labels.  Brand items such as Campbell Soup, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Duracell and Wisk goods are more than just household names to Faber -- they bring her volunteer family together. Consumer goods companies provide an outlet for Lynden residents to give back to their town, not only by making the city more ecologically sound but by serving its future through Lynden’s youth.  In the paper baler building on Drayton Street across from Lynden Christian Elementary School, Faber has run the Cash From Trash program since the project’s initiation in 1987, she said.  The program is a fundraiser of Friends of Lynden Christian School, a volunteer-based organization. Faber’s crew of volunteers collect, cut out, siphon and organize the commercial labels and proofs, which are then stapled to the receipts and sent out to appropriate companies for refunds. Groups of women sit around a table doing the meticulous work directed by Faber.  Collectively, the team has raised approximately $750,000 for the LC schools over the last 19 years, not to mention three Campbell’s promotion minivans and Friskies promotion computers, Faber said. All of the funds go to Friends of LC, which select the school’s improvement projects to assist with.  “I was going to sell our first computer, but someone I was talking to told me to keep it because the refunding world was merging online,” Faber said. “I didn’t even know how to type, let alone turn on a computer, but I had to learn. And now, I’m a computer guru -- but only with trash,” she said, laughing. “What we do is not like your typical baked goods sale where I make a cake, you make a cake, then I buy your cake and you buy my cake. This is a project where the parents don’t have to take their checkbooks out -- ever. All the money comes in from outside sources instead of from parents’ pockets that are already stretched from paying for tuition and everything else from having kids,” she said. The 50 volunteers work together through a staggering number of labels to generate from $17,000 to $40,000 annually. That’s especially remarkable since that the average label collects less than a quarter each -- many are only a penny -- and that the team is comprised of Lynden’s senior citizens. “Sometimes I feel like it’s too much work for the amount we collect, but the school officials remind me that we get so much from the project in other ways, like keeping our senior citizens happy,” Faber said. “That’s worth a lot.” “I feel most towns and projects don’t see senior citizens as an avenue, but they can be so helpful. They are very viable people that want to help physically –- they can’t always with their checkbooks. Yet they’ve already been through being president of the Mother’s Club, and so on. They don’t want to do that anymore – that asks a lot. But here, they can come and be able to do some work that is within their capabilities and feel that they are doing useful things for the school and the community,” she said. The program facility’s floor-to-ceiling rows of shelves illustrate the volunteers’ commitment to the project. Each shelf is organized with dozens of tagged boxes brimming with hundreds of designated labels. Some of the filled boxes may never amount to anything, as the proceeds are at the mercy of company refund promotions, Faber said, but they are stored on the shelves just in case offers for the products come along. Such a philosophy may clutter up the former LC school bus garage, but it has enabled Faber’s team to win several contests and earn substantial funds for the school, such as a random M&M’s Mars Bar promotion that was offered in 1991 that won LC $10,000, Faber said.  “It’s kind of like the New York Stock Exchange,” Faber said. “It can go fast.” Life on the refund fast lane starts at 4 a.m. for Faber. She begins her daily regimen at the computer hunting online for special campaign offers for school-only as well as individual refund opportunities. She empties the recycle cage located in the paper baler building three times a day and throughout the remaining hours, as the team of volunteers cuts, sorts and organizes the labels, she said.   “You don’t take breaks with this project,” Faber said. “The recycle cage fills up and the refunds all have deadlines, so you have to do it 52 weeks a year. This project is never over, we are never caught up and there are always things we have to let go because there are not enough hours in the day to be on top of everything. It’s kind of a runaway train. You can’t scale back because the recycle cage will still fill up.” But while the project at hand appears daunting and exhausting at times, Faber said, so long as Lynden community members are willing to show their support for the schools by donating their box tops, labels and receipts, the volunteers promise to continue on their mission to support Lynden Christian School as long as their workforce allows – after all, their loyalties lie with Lynden. For more information about the program or the promotions currently pursued, contact Faber at 354-3973, e-mail trashymom70@Hotmail.com or visit the project Web site at www.lyncs.org.