Thousands of pop tabs collected for good cause
Members of Putnam County Extension Homemaker clubs recently collected more than 300 pounds of aluminum can tabs to benefit Ronald McDonald House.
"At about 1,000 tabs per pound, that is a lot of tabs," said Kim Lawrenz, county volunteer community support chairperson for the Extension Homemakers.
Lawrenz, along with extension educator Jackie Baumann and extension club members Bonnie Bryan, Marianne Ashe and Bev Spires manned a tab drop-off station in the Greencastle Wal-Mart parking lot on May 17. Donations came from more than 50 individuals, groups and organizations.
One of the largest donations was from Reelsville Elementary School teacher Rhea Gilbrech's Step Club. Students from Roachdale Elementary kicked in more than 48,000 tabs, and Bill and Linda Wicklund from the Retired Senior Volunteer Program Aluminum Recycling Center brought 26 1-gallon milk jugs full of tabs to the collection site.
Many individuals turned in small plastic bags full of tabs or the tabs off beverages they were drinking at the moment, a release from Baumann said.
"Many people indicated that they were in the habit of saving the tabs but were not sure where to turn them in, but appreciated the opportunity to get their tabs to a collection site for the Ronald McDonald House," Baumann said.
The Putnam County Extension Homemakers are about halfway to their goal of collecting a million pop tabs. Additional collection dates will be set in the future.