Players in the Shawville minor fastball league spent last Monday evening collecting bottles from Shawville residents in an effort to raise funds for the league.

The bottle drive, organized by the Shawville District Recreation Association, saw ball players pair up with friends and a parent with a vehicle and drive door to door for two hours collecting as many cans and bottles as possible.

“We were in need of some new equipment. We’ve got new teams this year, so we were just trying to see if we could just raise a little bit of money for that,” said Emily Taylor, one of the organizers of the bottle drive.

“The kids actually did all of the work. The parents just sort of drove up and down the road and helped them load the cans,” Taylor said. “We were honestly trying to get the kids to participate as much as possible.”

Although players were collecting bottles and cans, some . . .

members of the community opted to make monetary donations as well, according to Taylor.

Grace MacKechnie, who has been playing baseball for over three years said she enjoyed getting the chance to help her team raise funds for the league.

“It was super fun. We got to just like, knock on people’s door and tell them what we were supporting,” MacKechnie said. “I was excited to raise money for baseball, because I know we are definitely going to use it.”

Taylor said the bottle drive was a success, and provided members of the fastball league a chance to acquire some educational opportunities while helping out their teammates.

“We just feel that being part of a team is important,” Taylor said. “These kids are learning things that they don’t learn in school, and it gives the kids opportunities to be good at something.”

Once bottles and cans were collected, they were sorted, bagged and delivered to J&J Grocery and Shawville’s Langford’s Grocery where they were exchanged for cash.

Members of the fastball league raised a total of $3,450 through the bottle drive.