Clarion characters: Dan the Can Man

Every town has certain places and people who make the town what it is. Without those characters, the area just wouldn’t be the same.

For Clarion, one of those characters is Danny Schnell, more commonly known as Dan the Can Man for his work picking up and redeeming cans and bottles.

“I’ve been collecting cans a lot of years,” Schnell said.

Pretty much every weekday for the last 13 years or so, Schnell has gone out to collect cans, both from businesses who save them for him and from roadsides. In this way, cleaning up the town is his job, he says.

“I keep the town clean,” he said. “I just keep going till I get it all done.”

For those who don’t know him, you’ll be sure to see him walking around town one of these days, or the Festival in the Park parade, pushing his cart and waving to the crowd.

For the full story, see the April 5 edition of the Monitor.