WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A Wichita man is using his love for recycling to support Kansas veterans. Through the years-long effort Chris Leon has helped to raise more than $100,000. He does it one can at a time.

​

For the past 12 years, Chris, 34, has been collecting and recycling cans, helping to raise over $115,000 for military veterans. It’s a project that Chris’s mother said started with a single can of soda in the family’s garage.

“Chris has always loved veterans,” his mother, Pat Leon said.

​

She further explained how her son, who has Down syndrome, latched onto such a noble cause. Pat saw an opportunity to build on her volunteer work with the Kansas Honor Flight.

​

“I started thinking, ‘What could he do?’ And [Chris] loves to drink pop, so I thought, ‘We’ll get a can crush and he can crush cans and save those, and give a little money to Kansas Honor Flight, at least,” Pat said.

​

Pat said she took Chris to metal recycling facilities to collect money from the cans he saved.

In Wichita, AllMetal Recycling took notice of what Chris was up to.

​

“Chris has been an inspiration to everything that we do here,” said Allmetal Recycling Manager Nicholas Herndon. “The support for our veterans is paramount when it comes to how we can give back to the local community to Kansas as a whole, so it makes us feel pretty good.”

​

Money raised through the can recycling helps to sponsor hundreds of veterans’ trips to Washington D.C. through the Kansas Honor Flight.

​

Anyone who’d like to donate to the cause can do so online here: www.honorflight.org/, or by bringing their cans and scrap metal to any Allmetal Recycling location in Wichita: 800 E. 21st Street North, 2829 N. Emporia, or 800 St. Francis.

​

Copyright 2025 KWCH. All rights reserved. To report a correction or typo, please email news@kwch.com