AUBURN - Maria Pisano stood back as years-worth of her bank statements, deposit receipts and medical information, dumped in a plastic garbage bin, inched toward the top of a truck. Once the bin could climb no higher, it was up-ended, Pisano's personal information dumped into the truck, ground up and never to be seen again.

“You don't have to worry about anyone getting your information,” said Pisano, of Auburn. “And these days, that's important.”

“Peace of mind,” she added, looking back at the truck that had chewed up and digested her documents.

Millions of pieces of peace.

A community shredding day held by Unity House put dozens of people's minds at rest, shredding boxes and bags full of documents in only two hours Saturday.

“Just like a garage sale, they were here before we were,” said Kelly Buck, director of marketing and development at Unity House, who strained to be heard over the whirring motor of the giant paper shredder.

The event allows people with overwhelming stacks of personal documents to dispose of them in a quick and safe way, she said.

“They like being able to see it done, knowing it's destroyed and won't be popping up somewhere else,” Don Parrott, an operations manager for ProShred, said in between shredding batches of documents.

Unlike home shredders that can handle a maximum of a few pages at a time, producing neat piles of narrow strips, ProShred's paper shredder truck can swallow a garbage-can-size load of paper in one gulp.

The paper is pressed through a hammermill-style shredder, pressing billing information, old receipts and tax statements through a screen and turning it all into confetti that can be seen collecting inside the truck through side windows, Parrott said.

David Greene and other Union Springs Unity House residents volunteered their Saturday morning to help people unload their unwanted documents from cars into the shredder.

The event gives Unity House residents an opportunity to work toward their community involvement goals, said Kim Greene, a Unity House residence coordinator.

“These guys can offer a lot to the community,” she said.

Greene's explanation for volunteering was simple. “They need help,” he said.

Greene wheeled a bin of paper over to the shredder, aligned it with the chain that would lift it and gave it a ready-to-go tap. With his head bent back as far as it would go, he gazed up at the ascending bin as it climbed to the top of the truck like a roller coaster car inching toward a peak.

Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net