Gov. Douglas Honors Downing For His Community Service
By Cornelia Cesari

It’s a familiar sight to many in Chelsea and around central Vermont: Bernard "Snook" Downing, pipe clenched in his teeth, loading bottles into the trunk of his car, while his constant companion, a Lab mix named Argyle, watches through the window.

Downing’s tenacious bottle collection—and the projects he has completed with the $40,000 he’s raised over the last 10 years—earned him a Governor’s Service Award for Outstanding Community Service. The award was presented by Gov. Douglas at a ceremony at National Life Saturday, April 26. The awards honor individuals, groups, and businesses that best exemplify the spirit of volunteerism and community service in Vermont.

Downing has volunteered his time at the Central Vermont Humane Society since 1997. The shelter, which takes in approximately 1,500 animals a year, was always low on food, so Downing designed donation barrels for food, which double as billboards advertising homeless pets, and placed them at area stores.

Next, he noticed that the animals at CVHS had no room to exercise and play. He began the bottle collection, funding the construction of an outdoor exercise pen and training area.

"We never expected it to get this big," Downing marvels. As the bottles have continued coming in, Downing and his partner, Charay Malas, have kept careful track of the money and chosen where it will be spent. The deposit money has contributed to fencing, outside yards, repairs, microscopes, a storage shed, website publicity, and a power washer for the kennel.

Downing and Malas have contributed bottle money to the SpayEd and VSNIP programs for low-cost spaying and neutering, taking a proactive approach to the vast numbers of unwanted puppies and kittens.

With Downing’s help, CVHS has also established a microchip program so that every stray leaving the shelter will have an implanted microchip, readable by any shelter or vet. This will minimize the animals' chances of returning to a shelter, their pasts unknown.

Downing went from being a volunteer, to board member and finally president of CVHS, until last fall. Despite holding a full time job, too, Downing has tirelessly put in countless hours for the benefit of Argyle and other animals like her. Always modest, though, he and Malas both take little credit for their work, but thank members of the community profusely for the bottles and cans that continue to appear on their porch and in their barrels.

"None of it could have happened without all of you," they insist gratefully.

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