LIMERICK PA – Although the annual Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce paper shredding event (at top) opened Saturday (Sept. 10, 2022) at 9 a.m. at its new location in Limerick, cars and trucks hauling bags and boxes of paper to the site didn’t arrive until about 9:30. Then they kept coming, and coming, and coming, chamber Executive Director Renee Blomstrom said.

She smiled as more than a dozen volunteers – some of them students at Ursinus College (at right) donating their time and energy, joined by others including chamber board members (below) – were kept busy by the traffic of those who wanted to permanently dispose of no-longer-needed documents.

The event helps raise funds for the chamber but, as Blomstrom has indicated in the organization’s earlier newsletters, it also provides a valuable public service. Shredding eliminates the risk of having valuable and occasionally confidential papers end up in readable form in the public trash. In fact, at least one local security-minded user of Saturday’s service insisted she stay to watch her boxload being chopped to bits.

An attendant from Paoli-based ProShred Security (above) was more than happy to oblige. The process of removing the box from her car, dumping its contents into a wheeled bin for the purpose, and automatically feeding it to the shredder took less than three minutes.

If you missed the chamber event and have documents to shred, you may want to plan for: