By ELSIE DENTON
News intern
June 12, 2007

Miracles do happen, and they generally happen when people go out of their way to help each other.

Last week Linda Holloway dropped a pile of magazines in the recycling without a second thought. Later that day, said Holloway, “(I was) unable to locate my day planner; I decided I MUST have set the magazines on top and just picked up the entire pile.”

After quickly ringing Hood River Recycling and Transfer Station, Holloway discovered that there was a chance to retrieve the mislaid planner, if she showed up at the station before 8 a.m. the next day.

The morning light found Holloway attired in old jeans, a work shirt and a pair of sturdy gloves ready to shift through anything the recycling had to offer.

Holloway was, however, in for a shock when she saw the sheer quantity of recycling that poured out of the collection truck. The first thought that crossed her mind, she said, was: “We recycle a lot.”

“She was a little shocked,” said Maintenance Manager Bill Konoske, who helped Holloway retrieve the planner. “The pile … looked like a mountain. A truck holds about 20 yards of compacted material.”

That much compacted recycling takes up about 60 yards when spilled out on the pad.

Undaunted, Holloway began bravely picking her way through the heap.

The transfer station staff didn’t let her battle the pile of recycling on her own. Erwin Swetnam, the district manager, came out with two rakes and, after handing one to Holloway, waded into the pile. Transfer operator Lee Perkins also took time to help in the search.

Still, after an hour of joint effort by the transfer station staff and Holloway, her planner had not materialized. Konoske decided it was time to change tactics.

“I asked her about the type of magazines she had thrown out. I looked for them and the notebook was right by them,” said Konoske.

The notebook was a little worse for the wear and roughed up around the edges but everything was still there. Holloway’s loose-leaf documents were still securely shut inside, and her pen, though bent, still clung tenaciously to the spiral binding.

“He was like an angel,” said Holloway. “If the pile hadn’t been in the way I would have run over and hugged him.”

Losing an item in the recycling isn’t that uncommon an event, according to Konoske. Occasionally a cell phone can be heard ringing from the bowels of a recycling heap that is waiting to be processed. Only three or four times a year does someone call in like Holloway, though.

“We try to tell them not to be too hopeful,” said Konoske. “It is a lot of material and they might not find what they are looking for.”