PHIL JOY and his wife Celeste, below (with BUSD Chief Business Official Tim Rahill), were honored by the BUSD school board last fall. Joy has been collecting scrap metal to raise money to pay school crossing guards.
File photos

❒ Phil Joy vows to press on, collect about $6,000 more in scrap metal

By David Ryan Palmer
Assistant Editor

The Benicia Unified School District has received a $10,000 shot in the arm courtesy of local businessman Phil Joy.

Joy has been collecting scrap metal to raise money to keep BUSD’s crossing guards on the job, and he just reached a significant plateau.

“We’re still about $6,000 away (from our goal), but when we hit the $10,000 mark, I wanted to write a check,” Joy said Thursday.

He began his metal recycling campaign last year after learning that the city would no longer be able to pay for the crossing guards. Joy said he got the idea from City Councilmember Mike Ioakimedes in October when Ioakimedes publicly asked residents to come up with alternatives.

“It started off kind of slow, maybe because it was cold and no one wants to be out in their backyard picking up metal if it’s cold,” Joy said.

“Now all of a sudden people are talking about it.”

Joy said he has seen all kinds of metal, and not just from local citizens. “A couple of big companies have donated big items. Amports donated a car and some forklifts, but most comes from people here in Benicia,” he said.

“We’ve been getting everything, including the kitchen sink.”

Joy will continue to collect metal, he said, even after the crossing guards are funded. “Other people are bringing up other things. I said as long as you bring in the metal, I’ll keep donating,” he said.

Joy is hauling the metal from his boat yard at the water’s edge of West C Street to Alco Iron and Metals on Mare Island.

“Right now, we’ve got two more bins full. I bet we have $1,000 just sitting here, waiting,” he said.

“Thanks to everybody. It was real nice meeting so many different people who wanted to help out.”

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