CRESTVIEW — Someone’s been stealing Elvit Enlow’s hard-won aluminum cans, and a local business owner’s doing something about it.
Many residents are familiar with Enlow, “the can man,” who daily tows his utility wagon around central Crestview streets collecting cans to recycle.
He stashes the cans in barrels behind the Manor until a friend helps him get them to a local recycling center.
But thieves have recently taken advantage of his hard work.
“They were stealing a month’s worth of collections,” Friendly Florist owner Susan Hollingshead said. “When you start stealing from someone that works that hard in the rain, cold and hot sun, that’s just wrong. That’s wrong.
“It’s awful to do something like that to anyone, but it’s especially awful to do it to someone like him.”
Manor Director Becky Brice-Nash said it is difficult to safeguard Enlow’s can barrels, given the Manor’s tight finances.
“We’ve done everything we can to secure it but it’s an open area,” Brice-Nash said.
Hollingshead is among many residents and business owners, including the News Bulletin, that set aside cans for Enlow to pick up.
She had originally considered raising money for a metal storage building, which she offered to put on her property just up Hickory Avenue from the Manor.
But after speaking with Brice-Nash, “what they really need is a 6-foot chain-link fence behind the Manor,” Hollingshead said. “It needs to be a tall fence so they (the thieves) can’t climb over it.”
She estimated she will need to raise about $500 for the 8-foot-square enclosure and its gate.
Hollingshead and Brice-Nash said the fence is urgently needed, because during the most recent incident, the thieves didn’t just steal Enlow’s cans.
“They stole the barrel and everything,” Brice-Nash said. “He’s been very, very upset about it.”
Hollingshead said helping Enlow is just paying forward her own good fortune.
“God has blessed me with a business and a career,” she said. “He’s (Enlow) such a sweet man. We save our cans for him. This is the least we could do.”
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WANT TO HELP?
Donations toward a chain-link fence to secure aluminum cans gathered by Crestview Manor resident Elvit Enlow for recycling can be brought to Susan Hollingshead at Friendly Florist, 586 Ferdon Blvd. N., Crestview, 682-2571.
CRESTVIEW’S CAN MAN
Not many people know Elvit Enlow by name, but mention “the can man” or “the man with the wagon” and many Crestview residents know him right away.
Enlow and his utility wagon are recognizable fixtures as he walks the downtown neighborhoods gathering aluminum cans, no matter the weather.
A resident of Crestview Manor on Pearl Street North, Enlow moved to town from California in 1992. He starts his daily rounds right after breakfast and often doesn’t return until suppertime, collecting between two and four bags of aluminum cans daily.
Enlow uses proceeds from recycling the cans for his expenses at the Manor and has a little left over to buy gifts for Manor staff members’ children and residents, and for his hobbies, which include collecting model cars and porcelain dolls.
Recent thefts of his cans and the barrels he stores them in aren’t the first time thieves targeted Enlow. After a supporter gave him a new wagon in 2011, it was stolen.
Donations toward a chain-link fence to secure aluminum cans gathered by Crestview Manor resident Elvit Enlow for recycling can be brought to Susan Hollingshead at Friendly Florist, 586 Ferdon Blvd. N., Crestview, 682-2571.
CRESTVIEW’S CAN MAN
Not many people know Elvit Enlow by name, but mention “the can man” or “the man with the wagon” and many Crestview residents know him right away.
Enlow and his utility wagon are recognizable fixtures as he walks the downtown neighborhoods gathering aluminum cans, no matter the weather.
A resident of Crestview Manor on Pearl Street North, Enlow moved to town from California in 1992. He starts his daily rounds right after breakfast and often doesn’t return until suppertime, collecting between two and four bags of aluminum cans daily.
Enlow uses proceeds from recycling the cans for his expenses at the Manor and has a little left over to buy gifts for Manor staff members’ children and residents, and for his hobbies, which include collecting model cars and porcelain dolls.
Recent thefts of his cans and the barrels he stores them in aren’t the first time thieves targeted Enlow. After a supporter gave him a new wagon in 2011, it was stolen.
WANT TO HELP?
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview business owner raising funds to protect 'can man's' collections