Your trash could be the Butler County Humane Society’s treasure in coming weeks.

The animal welfare organization is planning to start collecting aluminum cans to return for recycling as a way to bring in funds.

“The animal group in Crenshaw County is doing this and it’s going well for them,” said acting president Kandys Killough at the organization’s July meeting on Wednesday. “I know I could contribute plenty of cans to this project that I would otherwise throw away and I am sure others out there could as well. Let’s take advantage of this to help the animals.”

The BCHS will be gathering lightweight barrels with signage to distribute around the city and county notifying the public they can discard the aluminum cans inside them for a worthy cause.

“I would ask people who are interested in helping us to go ahead and start saving those cans at their homes and/or offices and as soon as we get the donations barrels set up, we will announce the locations and start taking their donations,” said Killough.

The BCHS will also happily take other castoffs, too, including home decor and seasonal items, small kitchen appliances in good working order, tools, sports equipment, fashion jewelry and accessories, DVDS/CDs, books, children’s toys and games and more for their booth inside Hidden Treasures in Greenville.

“We are getting really low on stock in our booth and we need folks to donate to us,” said booth chair Kimberly Matthews. “You can box up items and mark the box ‘BCHS Hidden Treasures’ and drop it off at the Shell Depot on Ft. Dale Road. We do ask that you don’t drop off clothes and please, bring the items to the Shell Depot, don’t drop them off at Hidden Treasures itself.”

The Butler County Humane Society is also looking into future fundraisers involving, as well as benefiting, the county’s young people.

“We are looking at getting a junior humane society established in our county. We already have some children and grandchildren of members who are involved and we want to expand upon that. They are the future of this organization,” said Killough. “What we’d like to do is have something like a play day involving the local saddle club. The monies raised from the event would be dedicated to a scholarship for a student who is involved in supporting animal welfare and who attends school in our county.”

The BCHS also plans to reach out to students in the community to assist with the set ups and tear downs for events like Bark in the Park and garage sales, and to assist with activities such as face painting and sidewalk chalk art.

“Many of these kids are looking for community service hours and this is a great way to get them those hours and get them involved in what we do,” said BCHS member and pet foster parent, Missy Braxton.

The Butler County Humane Society has a toll-free spay-neuter hotline at 210-7600 which county residents can call and leave a message for information and scheduling of low-cost spay and neuter surgeries for their pets available to everyone, regardless of income.

The BCHS subsidizes spay-neuter surgery for all animals adopted from the Greenville Animal Shelter to make adoption more affordable for the general public. It also covers a limited number of no-cost s/n surgeries each month for the pets of those who meet the income guidelines.

In addition, BCHS members serve as foster parents to homeless pets awaiting adoption/rescue through the Greenville Animal Shelter and help provide supplies needed at the shelter.

Anyone interested in learning more about the BCHS should contact Kandys Killough at 437-0729. The BCHS meets the second Wednesday of every month at 1 p.m., at the Camellia City Bakery in downtown Greenville.