Volunteer Dan Cohn, Shelly and Chris Brown of Great Northern Docks, Rotarians Dave Barker and Aaron Hagan at Shred-A-Thon event.

BRIDGTON — Over 70 happy shredders came from as far away as North Conway and Bethel to take advantage of the Bridgton-Lake Region Rotary’s Shred-A-Thon held on Saturday, May 4th at Food City in Bridgton. Great Northern Docks of Naples arrived with a truckload of papers for shredding.

Rotarian and project leader Joanne Cohn remarked, “Everyone worries about the risk of identity theft in disposing of confidential documents, but seeing is believing as they watched their papers go immediately into the Records Management shredding truck to be shredded before their very eyes. All shredded material is then recycled.”

Most of the patrons were using the event to dispose of personal documents, but several small businesses came with truckloads of documents that were quickly and safely shredded. Rotarian Dave Barker said, “Folks were pleased that they could support Rotary’s community service projects without paying more than commercial shredding services would charge.

Everyone was in and out in less than 5 minutes regardless of the amount of shredding they brought and left happy to know they no longer had to worry about their confidential documents getting into the wrong hands.”

Most people learned about the Shred-A-Thon by seeing a temporary street sign or reading about it in their local newspaper, as a Facebook post or other electronic messaging. Rotary is grateful for the generosity of its local press, Greater Bridgton Chamber of Commerce, Maine Street Graphics, and Food City in supporting the 2024 Shred-A-Thon. Mark your calendars for the 2025 Shred-A-Thon on May 3, 2025.

Those wanting to know more about Bridgton-Lake Region Rotary Club, its projects, and programs are invited to check out its website https://lakeregionrotary.com or its Facebook Page. The Club meets on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Thursdays of each month at Stella’s on the Square in Bridgton. To be part of its mailing list, contact LakeRegionRotary@gmail.com.