Cans for Cambodia, a bottle-drive based fundraising effort spearheaded by a former Merrittonian, has been funding medical and educational expenses for families in developing countries since 2013. However, the organization’s roots are much more humble, and its future looks to be even brighter. 

Organizer Shawn Pooley, a Kamloops broadcaster for over 20 years, remembers the trip to Cambodia that started it all. 

“It started in 2007 on my first to Cambodia where I met a young Cambodian girl, she was about 20 years old at the time, and she worked in a little cafe down this dirt road, she was barefoot,” said Pooley, who was “tagging along” on a friend’s Red Cross humanitarian mission. “I spent a few hours talking to this girl because she wanted to practice her English. In that few hours a friendship was born, and I knew I was going to stay in touch with this girl. She had lost both her parents to HIV, she spent her younger years in an orphanage.”

Pooley knew then that he would not only maintain contact with the young girl, named Salorm Tak, but support her financially in any way he could. The Merritt-born Kamloops resident realized soon after a 2013 conversation with Tak his personal finances wouldn’t cover the ambitious goals he had for his effort. 

“I would give her a little bit of my personal cash, $50 here and there just to help her out. Then six years later in 2013, she was mid twenties, working, her life was getting better but she needed a motorcycle. In Cambodia that’s the main source of transportation. I knew I couldn’t send her my personal money for a motorcycle, so that’s where the bottle drive idea came from. I said I’d collect bottles and send her the money when I had enough. It took a year, but we did it. She got her motorcycle, and she still has it to this day, nine years later.” 

The Cans for Cambodia campaign soon broadened its horizons both in scope and location of work, and while it remains primarily a source of educational funding, unexpected costs of hospitalizations and incidentals are often covered as well. 

“That’s where it really expanded to help other families. We helped a family in Vietnam, we helped a family in Thailand, we paid for a year’s tuition for a girl in South Africa at a university in Cape Town.”

With underdeveloped healthcare systems often the only option for locals, a high price tag is often attached to these services. 

“In 2017, a Vietnam family had a sick child and they ran up a really big hospital bill that they couldn’t cover. They borrowed money to pay off the hospital bill, but the interest on that loan was so high that their monthly income was only paying the interest and the balance wasn’t changing. So we went hardcore for six months and we got all the money through bottles to cover off their total debt. I think that’s the one I’m most proud of.”

Pooley was born and raised in Merritt, graduating from Merritt Secondary School in 1987, moving to Kamloops shortly after to begin his education. While he remained in Kamloops for his employment, Pooley considers himself a Merrittonian and regularly visits family here, including his mother. His passion for helping others comes from the positive experiences he’s had in his international travels and the close-knit community he has built along the way. 

“All the families I know, we’re all friends, none of the money goes to people I don’t know. All the children call me uncle, so it’s close friendships that have formed. When I’m in their country, they take care of me really well, so this is my way of helping them when they need it.”

Pooley has broadcast over more local airwaves for years, but also hosts a weekday morning radio show in the country of Cambodia on an English speaking station in the nation’s capital of Phnom Penh. 

Setting out on January 1, 2021 with a goal of returning 1,000,000 containers to BC recycling depots in 5 years, Pooley was slightly behind pace in his first year, but remains hopeful he will reach his goal. Over $60,000 in funds have been raised by returns made thus far.

“I have to average 200,00 a year, and last year I did 193,000 so I was just barely under. This year, I’m already 10,000 ahead of last year’s pace.”

Those interested in supporting the Cans for Cambodia initiative can drop donations of recyclables to the organization’s account at both Kamloops and Merritt bottle depots. For more information, contact Shawn at [email protected] or online at https://www.facebook.com/groups/927864911291328.