Gold Canyon church collecting Bibles, eyeglasses, hearing aids for reuse

By Richard Dyer
Mail | X: @RHDyer

Unused Bibles, eyeglasses and hearing aids are to be dusted off, fixed and reused while U.S. flags and expired drugs will be disposed of properly as part of a Gold Canyon church’s Stashed Not Trashed Collection Day in November.

A raffle, live music and a barbecue cookout with free burgers, brats, hot dogs and sodas are also planned at the 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, event at Shepherd of the Canyon Lutheran Church, 6499 S. Kings Ranch Road Suite No. 13 in Gold Canyon.

A team of volunteers is planning the event, which was born out of a desire to find new life for unused Bibles. The team includes the Rev. Mark A. Wood, his wife Mary Ellen Wood, Team Leader Jill Pelnar, Deeanna Smith, Cherice Graham and Nadeen Morden.

“The whole idea started with Bibles. One day they were talking about how many people have Bibles sitting around the house and then it just kind of grew from there to what else do people have siting around the house that they’d like to get rid of but they don’t know how necessarily or it’s just too inconvenient? And that led to flags and eyeglasses and prescription drugs — what do you do with those?” Mark Wood said. “Like everybody else, we’ve got stuff stashed around the house that we’d like to get rid of that it’s just not simple to get rid of it.”

Team members also hope the event will help to get the word out the church is in the community as it is tucked in the back of the Goldcor Shopping Center along Kings Ranch Road.

Graham designed a poster for the event with Canva.

“We need to raise awareness that we’re even here since we’re in the back of this whole section ... and we want to make sure this community has the ability to come and receive what Jesus wants to give them,” she said. “We’re also eyeing to do a service to help people get rid of things that they may not have time or know how to get rid of, and then we’ll be redistributing some of the things like the eyeglasses ... and Bibles.”

Mary Ellen Wood joined the team to help connect with the community.

“This is a good way to do so. Our goal is to make people aware we’re here,” she said. “Wanting to connect with the community and providing a service that is unique.”

Each item being collected will be at its own booth at the church event, including:

• Bibles to be donated and reused by an international charity.
• Eyeglasses and hearing aids to be donated to the Lions Club or a ministry that takes them overseas.
• Expired or unwanted over-the-counter and prescription drugs to be given to the Apache Junction Police Department or Pinal County Sheriff’s Office for disposal.
• Old U.S. flags to be retired with dignity and respect by giving them to an area Veterans of Foreign Wars post or the American Legion.

Smith, a nurse, will be at the booth collecting old drugs. She decided to join the team for the event because she likes evangelism.

“And I think this is a good thing because there’s a lot of people who need to get rid of things,” Smith said. “(T)here’s a lot of people in this world who need help. There’s a lot of companies and stuff that do things but I think it’s important for a church to do it to show them that we’re doing it because God wishes us to do things like that.”

Pelnar, the team leader, plans to help on the collection day wherever she is needed.

“It’s a good outreach for our church and it’s good for the community,” she said.

Mark Wood came up with the name Stashed Not Trashed Collection Day while filling out a form requesting a national grant from The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod.

“I was filling out a grant application and they wanted a name for the project and I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ so that’s what I came up with to complete the grant application. I was kind of stuck,” he recalled. The grants “encourage congregations to try something different.”

The grant is seeking $3,600 for two events for advertising, food, giveaway items and shipping items are donated.

“If this goes well we want to do it again in February so we kind of split it 50/50 between the two planned events,” Mark Wood said. “The Bibles that we collect, there’s a ministry that takes all kinds of old Bibles and reuses them and ships them off to Africa where people are looking for Bibles and can’t get them. So there’s some cost to getting the Bibles to them.”

Richard H. Dyer can be reached at rdyer@iniusa.org, or on X @rhdyer. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines, https://www.yourvalley.net/civility-checklist/.

Richard Dyer
Managing Editor | East Valley

rdyer@iniusa.org

Meet Richard
Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.  

Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions. 

Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.

Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.

Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.