Give generously… but stick to money

OWN CORRESPONDENT

Sharon Sack, who has been collecting these tins and counting the contents for over 26 years, told Jewish Report that JNF staffers and volunteers are used to finding all sorts of things in the tins.

A recently-collected tin from a Jewish day school, really took the cake, she said. When Sack emptied it into the counting tray, she found a condom! “It was a used one at that,” she says indignantly.

Coin-counters always find things like foreign currency, jewellery, paper-notes, chewing gum, dirty tissues and even small toys.

JNF volunteer Benji Shulman, says that while there are so many modern electronic ways folks can donate to the JNF, the Blue Box remains the most popular with the public.

JNF supporters still “like to do things the old-fashioned way”.

At its peak, there were over 5 000 Blue Boxes around Johannesburg, says Sack, but there are fewer now. Some of the metal tins have been replaced by a cardboard version. There is also an electronic version and even a giant blue box that sits outside Jewish schools.

The contents of each box are emptied into a tray and, before rubber-gloved counters start sorting, they first separate the debris.

The Blue Box was first used to raise funds in the 1890s. Since then, community members have been supporting the JNF in purchasing land, planting and growing trees, saving water and creating tourism in Israel.

The Blue Box has been around for over 100 years, and, if the support people pour into them is anything to go by, they seem set to be working for another 100 – at least.