EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — If you live in East Stroudsburg and have a garbage can to spare, Betsy Baker-Smith has a place for it.
She's a volunteer at The Barnyard Sanctuary just over the river in New Jersey. The nonprofit is looking for extras.
"I have worked at the Barnyard for four years and I knew that our garbage cans, which are very important to our process, were on their last legs, as it were," said Betsy Baker-Smith, East Stroudsburg.
The Barnyard Sanctuary is a rescue farm. The organization takes in everything from goats to pigs and llamas to water buffalo.
Tamala Lester is the general manager of the sanctuary. She says the cans are needed for animal waste collection.
"We are always looking for garbage cans. They are very expensive to buy, and they don't last very long. We go through a lot of them especially in the winter when it's cold because the contents freeze and then you have to bang on them to get it out and they split down the side and are history," said Tamala Lester, The Barnyard Sanctuary.
Last year, East Stroudsburg borough announced residents would have to buy issued garbage cans in 2020.
That's when Betsy realized there was a way she could help the organization.
"Suddenly, we had the possibility of getting a whole city worth of garbage cans available," said Baker-Smith.
The new garbage cans came in last week and these old ones started rolling in.
So far, about two dozen trash cans have been collected.
"It's really a godsend for us to have all of these assorted types of barrels and trash cans that we can use here in our program," said Lester.
If you have a garbage can to donate, it can be dropped off at the Twin Boroughs Recycling Center in East Stroudsburg.