A local Realtor made good on a promise to climb Grouse Mountain for charity. Sebastian Albrecht climbed the Grouse Grind 14 times in one day, beating his personal best of 13 from last year. It’s the equivalent of climbing 12,000 meters straight up.

News1130 chatted with Albrecht after his amazing journey. So how was he feeling after hours of Mother Nature’s stair-master?

Albrecht: “Legs are okay actually, feeling a bit nauseous but other than that pretty good.”What was the hardest part about getting up 14 times?Albrecht: “Pretty much everything after number six.”

His trek began at 6:30 a.m. Monday and wrapped up shortly after 11 p.m. A torrential downpour also tried to slow him down, but he says a group of 50 school kids were on hand to cheer him on. Money raised for his event went towards the Royal LePage Shelter Foundation. Good job, another generous Canadian!

I was lucky enough to get a snap-shot of a really cool cheque presentation ceremony today. $13k in cash will help provide 26,000 meals to hungry people across Canada!

From left to right: David Gold – Owner of Standard Auto Wreckers, Paul Coon – VP Green Vehicle Disposal, Jay Granofsky – Search Marketing Manager Charity Car Canada and Kayley Collum – Program Co-ordintor and Heather Nelson – Manager of Development both from Food Banks Canada

Lailani Mendoza wrote a nice article about our website!

Did you know that you can dispose of your vehicle for free and help a charity of your choice?

A company called Charity Car makes this possible. By calling their 1-800 number or filling out an online form, you can arrange to have that old clunker sitting in the backyard towed for free. Charity Car will write a cheque equal to the value of your end-of-life vehicle and send it to your chosen charity.

“It was a surprise,” said Stephanie Klaus, B.C. SPCA’s manager of corporate relations, when they were told that a Kamloops lady had donated a 1984 Toyota Camry to support the organization. SPCA’s recent partnership with Charity Car makes them one of Charity Car’s 70 Canadian partners.

How it works
When you contact Charity Car, you’ll be connected with a local affiliate who’ll arrange a time of pick up for your vehicle. Your car will be towed to an authorized treatment facility that ensures your vehicle is disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner.

Company vice president Paul Coon explains the process. “The things that’ll sell off of the car will get dismantled and inventoried into the warehouse. The rest of the car will be decontaminated, crushed and be processed for scrap steel.”

“We only deal with licensed auto recyclers. We want the vehicles to go to licensed auto dismantlers who have all the proper tools to process the vehicles,” he said.

Vehicles destined for the junkyard may contain fluids or chemicals that can seep into the ground or water reservoir and pollute the environment if not disposed properly.

Fluids such as antifreeze, gas and oil and other hazardous materials such as batteries and mercury switches are removed from the vehicle and either reused or discarded properly.

The operation was founded by David Gold, co-owner of Standard Auto Wreckers in Ontario. Gold comes from a family of auto wrecking business veterans and is the first Canadian recipient of the Most Influential Auto Recycler of 2009 award for setting a positive example in the auto wrecking industry.

Championing charities and the environment
The charity receives 100 per cent of the car’s value, usually between $80 and $100 per car. After the donation is received, the charity writes up a tax receipt for charitable giving and sends it back to the individual donor.

“I think it’s amazing. It gives people the option to support, in a significant way, a non-profit organization by donating things that they wouldn’t necessarily think to donate,” said Klaus. “A lot of people have used cars out there. It just gives them the opportunity for recycling first of all and then supporting a charity. It’s a very cool and innovative donation program.”

In Toronto where it’s based, Charity Car has helped support charities big and small.

“We rely solely on donations from corporations and individuals to ensure we have the funds to grant wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses,” said Linda Marco, director of the Children’s Wish Foundation. “The support from Charity Car helps us fulfill our mandate.”

Ashleigh Saith of Interval House, an organization that supports victims of abuse, said it takes little work on their part and raises awareness of their organization’s work in the community.

“Not only did they help us raise over $2,500 last year, their program presents a creative way for individuals to support Interval House,” said Saith.

“Auto recyclers pick up and buy cars every single day. That’s what we do for a living. All that we’re really doing is transferring the funds,” explained Coon. “I’m gonna either pay you $100 to $200 for your wrecked car, or I can send that to a charity.” It’s a win-win-win situation with the charity getting the most benefit, he added.

The next time you need to dispose a vehicle, consider donating it to charity instead. Visit www.charitycar.ca or phone 1-877-363-6354.

Dear Colin:

This letter is to reiterate our support of 10,000 Trees for the Rouge.

As you know, we here at Standard Auto Wreckers are very proud of our environmentally sound processes – they are fundamental to our philosophy of being responsible business operators within the Rouge Park. After we had a chance to meet with you and the 10,000 Trees executive we got a sense that our stewardship goals are aligned with yours. I personally have volunteered, with my children, at some of the group’s plantings, and find them to be well-organized events.

For these reasons Standard Auto Wreckers felt quite confident in directing the donation of $10,000 made by OARA to your group. We believe 10,000 Trees for the Rouge is doing important habit restoration work in our community, and we feel our donation will make a real difference to the group. Of course, 10,000 Trees for the Rouge remains as one of the selected charities listed in our “Charity Car Program.”

Wishing you success in the upcoming year,

David Gold – Co-Owner, Standard Auto Wreckers

Toronto, ON (CharityCar) March 5, 2010 — CharityCar (www.CharityCar.us and www.CharityCar.ca), green vehicle disposal (www.greenvehicledisposal.com) and charity car donation company, today announced that its total donations processed for 2009 exceeds $91,000 USD.  Over the course of the year, 50% of customers traded their vehicles in for cash while the other 50% donated the money to charity. This trend is expected to continue in 2010.

CharityCar would like to thank its many generous donors across North America who, despite the economic downturn, contributed to its success; more importantly, the success of its supported charities and the betterment of the environment.

David Gold from Standard Auto Wreckers (www.standardautowreckers.com) and the founder of the program said: “We originally started this program to give back to our local community in Toronto, Ontario and when friends in the business heard about what we were doing they all wanted to join in. Now, three years later, we have over 150 partner charities and more than 70 member recyclers in both Canada and the USA participating! It really is heartwarming to see.”

About CharityCar
CharityCar (CharityCar.us and CharityCar.ca) accepts the donation of old vehicles on behalf of charities and non-profit organizations across North America. CharityCar utilizes its partner Green Vehicle Disposal’s eco-friendly recycling technology, offers ‘free pickup’, does not take any fees for processing or handling charity vehicles and donates 100% of the recyclers value to the customers’ chosen charity in the United States or Canada. CharityCar’s purpose is to provide its customers with an eco-friendly solution for the disposal of old vehicles. All vehicles donated through CharityCar are disposed of in an eco-friendly manner which meets and exceed all recycling rules. For more information, visit: www.CharityCar.us or www.CharityCar.ca.

They are proud to practice environmentally sound processes when dismantling and recycling our vehicles. This is achieved by properly draining all hazardous fluids from the vehicle thereby not having them drain into the ground. They remove Mercury switches and other dangerous substances from the vehicles and dispose of them in a safe way in accordance with local laws.

The Good Samaritan laws protect from liability those who donate and distribute food in good faith.  In Ontario it reads as follows:

Liability of donor

1. (1) A person who donates food or who distributes donated food to another person is not liable for damages resulting from injuries or death caused by the consumption of the food unless,

(a) the food was adulterated, rotten or otherwise unfit for human consumption; and

(b) in donating or distributing the food, the person intended to injure or to cause the death of the recipient of the food or acted with reckless disregard for the safety of others.

Non-application

2. This Act does not apply to a person who distributes donated food for profit.

Good Samaritan Doctrine: is a legal principle that prevents a rescuer who has voluntarily helped a victim in distress from being successfully sued for ‘wrongdoing.’ Its purpose is to keep people from being so reluctant to help a stranger in need for fear of legal repercussions that they do not offer aid.

We are pleased to officially re-launch our new website redesign and to celebrate we are offering all new charity signs ups a chance to win an iPod Shuffle and other great prizes like CharityCar.ca official merchandise!  All new sign ups and referrals to the program that meet our partnership criteria will be entered into a random draw that will take place on June 30, 2010 – winners will be contacted by phone and have their names posted on this blog.

If your charity or non-profit does not currently have a charity car donation program or you have one that is just too expensive, let us help!  We give one hundred percent of the recyclers valuation to your charity and take zero fees.  We do the work and all your charity or non-profit has to do is issue the tax receipts!  Fill out the charity registration now and get started accepting charity cars with seven days!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest partner charity, Christian Children’s Fund of Canada – They help to break the cycle of poverty.  They also guarantee their supporters that over 80% of charitable donations will be used directly in their international programs.  For close to 50 years, CCF of Canada, a non-profit organization, has led the fight against poverty setting thousands of people free from the shackles of extreme poverty.

Donating your car to this charity is a great way to make a difference this holiday season.  And don’t forget that each car is recycled in an eco-friendly way which can make you feel twice as good.  Then there is the tax deductible receipt you are eligible for!  So don’t wait, donate now.

Hi everyone and welcome to our new blog at www.CharityCar.ca – I will be bringing you news, commentary and other interesting tidbits about everything related to the charity industry.  Please feel free to participate through the commenting feature on each and every post.