<p class="p1">Randy Mills picks up bottles from the Round-Up Arena Tuesday for the Good Sam RV Club. The money from the recycled bottles will go to the Doernbecher’s Children’s Hospital Foundation.</p>

When the crowds clear out of the Round-Up Arena this week, Pendletons Good Sam RV club will move in.

About 10 volunteers from the club will comb through the 17,000 arena seats to pick up bottles left behind.

The proceeds from the recycled bottles are given to the Doernbecher Childrens Hospital Foundation. The foundation helps fund research for children with cystic fibrosis.

Before the crowds came in for slack on Tuesday, Loretta Wells, one of the club volunteers, crawled under the bleachers to grab the hard-to-reach bottles. Getting down on the arena floor might not sound like a fun way to spend the Round-Up week, but its all worth it to her if it helps the children. 

You just have to think about the kids, and what theyre going through, Wells said. Whatever I have to go through in comparison to help them isnt nearly as bad as what they have to go through day in and day out.

One of the volunteers, Jenne Smith, has two grandchildren diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She, her husband and Rita and Wayne Harris started collecting the bottles 10 years ago.

We just kind of feel like were doing something to help, Smith said. We wanted to help out, but we didnt have a lot of money so one of the members suggested collecting bottles. I thought wed only be getting four or five dollars a week, but its been a lot more than that.

The volunteers at the club collect bottles from trash cans, the streets, and local businesses year round. Smith said in the last 10 years theyve been recycling bottles, the club has raised about $25,000 for the Doernbecher foundation.

This is the first year the club has cleaned up at the Round-Up, so their total by the end of the year will probably be higher than usual.

Just this morning alone, Ive collected four bags of bottles, Wells said. The club uses standard size garbage bags.

Lou Pulley, the lead organizer for the clubs recycling duties at the Round-Up, said there are some yellow barrels at the Round-Up arena that you can throw your bottles into to help their fundraising efforts.