Virden Parks Initiative

04/06/2026

Have you seen it yet? Your donated bottle caps have created this beautiful bench in memory of Nolan Kiel and it is now sitting outside of the Fire station on Springfield Street. The VPI is proud to have worked in partnership with the VFPD to create this lasting memory for a young man taken far too soon!

The Bottle Caps to Benches program has also created a 6' foot gray bench to be installed at one of our local parks very soon. If you would like to dedicate a bench in memory of a loved one, the cost of a 6' bench is $391.50 plus 200 pounds of bottle caps. The VPI will donate $100 toward an engraved plaque to be installed on the bench.

If your group or organization would like to help with the sorting of the caps for another bench or two, please message us on this page!

03/12/2026

Next meeting of the VPI is Tuesday, March 17th at 7 PM
Pitman Hall, 157 W. Jackson. Please join us and share your ideas and thoughts!

01/17/2026

Did anyone else see that the little town of WITT in Montgomery County secured at $600,000.00 OSLAD grant from the State of Illinois?

First meeting for 2026 of the Virden Parks Initiative will be held this TUESDAY, JANUARY 20 at 7 PM at First Baptist Church's Pitman Hall - 157 W. Jackson St. in Virden.

All are welcomed and encouraged to attend - your input and support are needed!

09/13/2025

Please join us this Tuesday and help make a difference in our community!

08/12/2025

A big shout out to our Virden royalty as they help our parks by organizing a clean & sort day of bottle caps. We intend to use the caps to make benches for our parks! Yes, we are still accepting donations of caps and the amber medicine bottles. But right now we are needing to get the ones we have cleaned, sorted, and weighed. Come join the queens tomorrow--WEDNESDAY from noon until 2 PM at First Baptist's Pitman Hall!

Brooke Gillespie
Yesterday at 6:17 PM
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Hi everyone! The Virden Parks Initiative collected many plastic caps this year to recycle into some park benches for the Virden community. They are also hosting a day to clean these caps to make them acceptable for recycling!
The cleaning date is set for this upcoming Wednesday, August 13th, in the Pitman Hall of the Virden First Baptist Church from 12-2pm.
Volunteers are welcome to join us in this cap-cleaning event! Feel free to contact Debbie Kershaw with any further questions.
We are so excited to see you there! 🐾🫧

07/11/2025

Look why the village of Sherman is opening tomorrow! How awesome!

06/12/2025

We're looking for a place to store our bottle caps as we work toward creating a couple of benches for our parks. Anyone have some extra space, preferably on ground level that you're willing to let us use for the next 6-10 months?

06/06/2025

See below for our drop off sites! We are so excited and grateful for the community involvement we are seeing!

You can drop off your CLEAN bottle caps in the barrel located near the East door of Pitman Hall at the rear of First Baptist Church of Virden (157 W. Jackson). If you have a large number of them, please message us on this page and we'll make arrangements to pick them up and store them until we have enough for a bench or two.

05/29/2025

Start saving your bottle caps over the summer and this fall we will make a big push to create one or more benches for our local parks!

PLEASE follow the directions carefully---caps MUST BE CLEAN and of the correct type to work!

Watch this page for a place you can drop off your caps very soon.

05/18/2025

Nelson’s Chicken Dinner pickup is
THIS TUESDAY 5/20 4:30-6:30
At Grace Southern Baptist Church!!

05/13/2025

Hope to see you THIS Tuesday!