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MAC's Project joins Hoefflin Foundation

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Contributed by: Carol Rock on 8/30/2007

The phrase "It takes a village to raise a child" is something Teri Maier and her family have taken to heart.

Their youngest child, MacKenzie, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2004. The resulting whirlwind of doctor visits, chemotherapy, scheduling conflicts and trying to be there for their other two children made Teri and her husband, Chuck decide they wanted to do something for the families that helped them though the difficult time.

"It takes a community to get through that," she told a meeting of the advisory board of the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Children's Cancer on Wednesday. "We wondered what we could do and thought that recycling might be the answer."

Now, their black recycling bins can be found throughout Santa Clarita, at schools, businesses and community locations. The funds raised go to families in the same circumstances the Maiers found themselves in not that long ago. In the first year of the program, they collected $12,000 that goes towards providing food, gas and incentives for families dealing with their children's cancer.

Maier said that incentives included trips to amusement parks or gift items given to the child with cancer or their siblings as a reward for getting through a difficult test or treatment. Monies raised by their project also help provide basic needs money for families who are traveling back and forth to hospitals or have financial hardships when one or both parents have to leave work or change jobs to attend to the sick child's needs.

The program has two purposes: to generate money to help families with a child being treated for cancer and to pitch in and save the planet while raising awareness of recycling.

"We've been able to create a huge awareness of recycling," Maier said. "We've never met anyone who didn't want to participate."

The bins accept all aluminum, glass and plastic beverage containers and the program has taken off with such success, the Maier family is overwhelmed. Now, MACs Project has become one of the Hoefflin Foundation's fundraising programs, which will provide more volunteers and visibility.

"If you can drink it, we can recycle it," added Scott Shauer, Executive Director of the Hoefflin foundation.

The program's name isn't just a tribute to its little founder, it's also an acronym for Make Another Child Smile, something Teri said MacKenzie practiced as she traveled the road to recovery.

"We'd be at the hospital and she'd see someone else getting treatment," Maier said. "She knew somebody else was having a worse day than her. We'd have to stop at the gift shop and buy them some stickers and MacKenzie would go back and visit with them and make these pictures with the stickers. When we left, she would tell me how she remembers the smile on that child's face."

MAC's Project barrels are available for placement (the group does free pickups) by calling (661) 977-7506. For those who wish to recycle beverage containers at home, the containers may be brought to the foundation offices at 26470 Ruether Ave., Unit 101 in Canyon Country on the first and third Saturdays in October. Future drop-off schedules will be announced.

For more information on MAC's Project, visit their website at www.macsproject.com. For information on the Michael Hoefflin Foundation for Children's Cancer, visit their website at www.mhf.org.

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