The 12th annual document shredding and electronics recycling event by the Better Business Bureau returns to the St. Michael Angelus Center on National Road in Wheeling on Saturday. (Photo Provided)

WHEELING — The Better Business Bureau is bringing its annual document shredding and electronics recycling event to the St. Michael Angelus Center on National Road in Wheeling this weekend.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at 1225 National Road, and as always, it is free and open to the public.

Frank Cilona, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau serving the Canton Region and Greater West Virginia, stressed the primary purpose behind the document destruction and e-cycling event.

“The purpose is to protect from identity theft,” Cilona said. “It allows individuals to shred personal documents. It allows them to dispose of electronics that might also carry personal information — or just to dispose of things they don’t need anymore. It allows a lot of folks to clean out their closets more than anything and really get a lot of that stuff out of there. But the primary purpose certainly is the legal documents, the shredding of those things so they don’t fall into the wrong hands and at some point become identity theft for a lot of individuals.”

Cilona said the Better Business Bureau has always championed ethics, integrity and fair business practices. Efforts to defend against identity theft in recent years have emerged as a key strategy to protect both consumers and businesses from these kinds of risks.

“Doing this allows us to provide that service to the communities that we serve,” Cilona said. “It allows us to help protect against identity theft and really protect individuals from getting taken by scams and things like that if their information falls into the wrong hands.”

The annual shredding and e-cycle day has become a popular event not only in the Friendly City but also in communities throughout the Better Business Bureau’s greater service area.

“We’ve been doing it in Wheeling now for 12 years,” Cilona said. “We do three of them in West Virginia – the one in Wheeling, we did one in Morgantown earlier in the spring, and we did one in Huntington. We also do two in Ohio. We did one in the spring in Canton and then we did one last week in Dover.”

Residents throughout the Ohio Valley are welcome to bring sensitive documents to shred and old electronics to e-cycle. All services are offered for free with the exception of TVs and monitors, which will be accepted for recycling for a nominal $10 fee.

“It’s open to the community,” Cilona said. “Individuals are allowed to bring any kind of paper documents that they want shredded. Companies may also want to come.”

A lot of time at these events, doctors offices, accounting firms, banks and other businesses take advantage of the opportunity to participate to have sensitive documents shredded or old electronic devices recycled, Cilona said, noting that circuit boards, old laptops, ink toner cartridges, and pretty much “anything with an electrical cord” will be accepted.

“We take donations, but it is a free event,” he noted. “We do have a donation box if anyone wants to donate, and a lot of people do. That money helps us pay for the event, along with our sponsors who make it possible. Those donations are put in our charitable and educational fund account. We give out six scholarships a year to graduating seniors in our service area — that includes 12 counties in Ohio and 52 counties in West Virginia.”

Cilona said the BBB’s scholarships are open to any high school senior throughout the entire 54-county, two-state service region. Students interested in a scholarship are encouraged to make a submission to the BBB Life Lessons Essay Scholarship Contest.

For more information about the shredding and e-cycle event, the essay scholarship contest or other services offered by the Better Business Bureau, visit www.bbb.org.