Tony Anderson”s motive was money. But doing recycling has led him to much, much more.
“I was cleaning up after the Mendocino Fourth of July Parade,” Anderson said. “People were applauding. I thought they were applauding the float, but when I asked, they said You”re keeping our town and our environment green.””
The gung-ho Anderson has a new feeling about those old cans and bottles.
“It blew me away, when people clapped for me,” Anderson said, “because I hadn”t gone out to do good for the community, but I realized I was doing that, and it was a great feeling, as well as the money.”
He now has a recycling route for MendoPower Employment Services, a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Anderson is putting up boxes for collecting printer cartridges, cell phones, laptops, rechargeable batteries and PDAs (personal digital assistants, also known as palmtop computers) for resale to benefit MendoPower.
MendoPower”s mission statement is to promote and create employment opportunities related to community reuse and recycling. MendoPower has special programs for the disabled.
Anderson, who was born with cerebral palsy, is looking forward to finding opportunities for other disabled people, as well as eventually gathering enough recyclables for a commission.
“I”m happy in my life right now,” Anderson said. “I”ve done some taking from the community, and now I get to give back.
“I think this will really take off with people here,” he added.
MendoPower is also working with a metal recycler and is planning a truck route to the Bay Area for other materials. Anyone who has metal items and needs pickup may contact us.
Us?
I”m executive director of MendoPower, a nonprofit with a board of directors, devoted to community benefit purposes related to employment, recycling, jobs for the disabled and business creation.
Usually the only time I write in the first person in this newspaper is in my annual series about the Fort Bragg Food Bank. This time, I”m part of the action, rather than reporting on it, and I”m inspired by people like Anderson.
Now the Food Bank, where Anderson is a volunteer, is my neighbor here at 900 N. Franklin.
Three years ago my mom, Betty Lou Hartzell, and I started out selling books online, with me thinking it would take a couple months to create MendoPower. Selling books on e-bay was supposed to pay my bills in the meantime, and it has done so.
At 900 N. Franklin, I have a very supportive cast, ranging from family to David Leonhardt who runs GlassDharma, manufacturing glass straws. MendoPower had hoped to expand and train disabled people in both online selling and manufacturing. I had learned the Mendocino Coast trick of wearing many hats but had a lot to learn about building non-profits.
I spent 20 years as a reporter, editor and college journalism teacher before coming here in 2004. I had written an award-winning series about the carelessness that led to the death of an 18-year-old boy at a mental hospital, but I was later floored at how little I knew.
For one year, I worked at placing disabled people in community jobs for Parents and Friends, Inc. PFI is one of the oldest nonprofits in town and provides a wide range of vital services to the developmentally disabled, many of whom I came to know well and admire. MendoPower”s focus is employment and business creation, not just for the disabled, but for everyone.
For three years, I was on call as “extra help” for Mendocino County mental health, transporting distraught people in the middle of the night to far-away mental hospitals. There I met great people and a terrible, often medieval, system that is hidden from the eyes of most Americans. It was horrifying at times. But I was equally impressed with the skill of many helpers and the ability of some people with disabilities to overcome obstacles that reach far beyond a lack of wheelchair access.
Some of the best news stories I ever saw had to go untold, as confidentiality is paramount in everything — the exact opposite of the rule of my chosen profession. So it”s rare to have a guy willing and able to give consent to being featured. The affable Tony Anderson, known by half of Fort Bragg anyway, volunteered to be named in the story as part of an effort he may like as much as I do.
“I don”t want to put us” in a different class of people,” Anderson said, “but when we are together, we are there for each other and we all know it, it”s something great and hard to put into words. Actually, it”s a great sense of belonging I”d like to bring to the rest of the community.”
Other services
MendoPower has a Social Security advocate in training, herself living with a disability. The SSDI advocacy program is beloved by Dr. Mark Kline, who serves on our board of directors. One of the sad things I have seen is the hurdles the Social Security Administration puts in the way of people who are trying to work and perhaps eventually lessen their cost to taxpayers. We hope the advocate can help with that.
Another MendoPower Employment Services business is Noyo Temps, a temporary service that can provide insured workers for community projects. We have a contract with Mendocino County for cleanup jobs and have provided labor for community events like the World”s Largest Salmon Barbecue and North Coast Fishing Association events.
Tom Jelen, a man with decades of experience in disability employment services, is working on turning Noyo Temps into a fully-functioning business.
MendoPower is also adopting Transition Towns will be able to take donations through MendoPower. We support their vision of an emerging new local, economy, which will provide many career and employment opportunities. Their mission and ours match in terms of recycling, sustainability and new opportunities for employment.
We also have been in discussions with the Noyo Food Forest, a fellow nonprofit we”d like to figure out a way to help, as NFF has the innovative spirit to be a key player in a re-emerging local economy.
We are looking for volunteers with office skills to work in the MendoPower program and can accept donations of books to sell online. We are also seeking job applicants and clients who need temporary work done. We are hoping in the future to have or sponsor a labor barter system.
No government
funding
We have no government money, and it doesn”t look likely we will get any soon. MendoPower got into the disability business just when the state of California started making gigantic cuts to disability services. There is a freeze on funding for any new programs.
Although job programs have demonstrated the ability to move disabled people into taxpayer status, these have been cut. And I truly didn”t want to seek state money until we had something great for that money to be spent on. The way the system works is that those good at getting the money are often so exhausted and consumed by that process they can forget the clients. I didn”t want to fall into that.
A terribly distressing experience is visiting the Caspar transfer station and seeing how much worthwhile stuff is trucked away to a landfill. We”re looking at renting a second location in the future, where we could employ people fixing and selling everything that can be fixed and reused.
Anderson, who worked the salmon barbecue for MendoPower and will be at the Paul Bunyan Days parade again, is looking for recyclables and is willing to stop at any local businesses.
Currently, MendoPower has boxes for electronic recycling at the C.V. Starr Center, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, and two local health clubs. Our box at the Food Bank was burgled twice, so we are removing that one.
I was disappointed to find out how little interest investment companies like Hewlett Packard have in recycling — they told me they don”t actually reuse any of the materials. We can put most of the items Tony picks up back into use and out of the waste stream.
Well-known in town
Anderson knows a lot of people, but even more know his voice. He is the announcer for the Fort Bragg High Timberwolves football and other high school sports.
After high school, Anderson worked at both Burger King and Taco Bell, before spending 10 years employed at a local health club.
“I was executive director of sanitation,” he said with a smile.
Anderson sank deeply into drugs and alcohol in his 30s, but has been clean and sober for five years.
“I have my life back together, and I want to give back to this community that has given me so much,” he said.
MendoPower would not have been possible without the help of attorney Sean Hogan and Michele Robb from that law office.
MendoPower has office hours by appointment for now but can be reached at 962-9279 or mendopower@gmail.com.
