Great communities don’t just fall on a map. It takes great people to make great communities. Great people like Valerie Parker.

Weston friends, you need to know about Valerie Parker. Valerie gifted us the ability to test launch our app in Weston. Now it’s time for us to do her solid. And we’re asking you to get involved in a super easy way.

Valerie’s official title is Village of Weston Planning Technician. We’re going to zero in on her role as Weston’s Recycling Coordinator. Actually, we need to go even further. We are going to dig into Valerie’s role as one special human being who is so passionate about doing the right thing—especially when it comes to recycling right.

Many communities have individuals who oversee refuse and recycling contracts. Valerie took that role to heart when she began her tenure with Weston more than a decade ago. She didn’t just review new contracts. She made sure Weston went after grant funding available through the state to keep recycling costs lower for residents, developed an annual recycling and refuse newsletter, and hosts a calendar of events such as an electronic waste drop-off, home composting event and bulk-item drop-offs that is capped off with an annual recycling audit that awards prizes to the community’s best recyclers.

When we approached the Marathon County Solid Waste Dept. Director Meleesa Johnson about needing a community to beta test the ERbin app, Meleesa sent us straight to Valerie. Valerie eagerly agreed to bring any tool to residents that would make recycling right easier.

Now, Valerie is battling against a reoccurrence of endometrial cancer. We wanted to help with her battle against cancer and support her mission to help Weston residents recycle right. To do that, we are hosting an ERbin app scan challenge. Here’s how you can get involved.

For the challenge, simply download (Google Play; App Store) the ERbin app and start scanning the UPC barcodes of products to see if they are acceptable in Weston recycling bins. For each scan or search up to 2,000 scans/searches, we are contributing $0.25 toward a total donation that will go to the Foundation for Women’s Cancer (FWC) at the end of the scan challenge on Earth Day, April 22. The goal is to raise $500 for FWC. That means we need 2,000 scans from you.

Will you accept the challenge?