For Your Pop Tab, Thanks a Million!

Harrison Elementary Student Council members, led by teachers Lynn Sorrentino and Deborah Leslie, are encouraging students to save the aluminum pull-tab rings found on many food and beverage cans. They're checking soda, soft drinks, soups, tuna, cat food, and other canned products in their cabinets, and learning that saving these tabs will help our environment and also help families in need.

Harrison's donation of pop tabs will go to the Ronald McDonald House in Long Branch, NJ. The Ronald McDonald House goal is to provide a "home away from home" for families of seriously ill children receiving medical care at nearby facilities. Guests stay at the House regardless of their ability to pay the requested $10 per night donation. This requested donation is often waived, and even when paid, does not cover the actual $60 per night per room expense of maintaining the House. Donations cover the remaining House expenses.

The collection of tabs helps generate money for the Ronald McDonald House. Pop tabs are collected instead of entire aluminum cans because tabs are easier and more hygienic to collect and store. At the end of this school year, Harrison Elementary representatives will bring the tabs collected at the school to the Ronald McDonald House, where they will be taken to a local recycling station. There, the tabs will be weighed and cashed in by the pound. The Ronald McDonald House uses this revenue to pay household expenses, supplies, and waive room fees for families in need. Harrison's school goal is to become a member of the Ronald McDonald "Collect-A-Million" Club. As the name suggests, the goal is to collect and donate a million pop tabs.

Collection jars are found in every classroom at Harrison. The grades have a friendly competition going to see which grade can fill the most jars. In the Harrison front hall, you can find a tally of the grade totals and the school total. This project is weaving its way through the Harrison curriculum as well -- counting tabs, estimating how many tabs make a pound, estimating how many tabs a container may hold, looking at how tabs are recycled, and talking about the importance of community service.

The Harrison Student Council want to raise awareness of this cause and encourage everyone in the community to continue collecting these tabs. Superbowl weekend is coming along with Superbowl parties -- a great opportunity to gather lots of tabs. Please help Harrison reach our goal of 1,000,000 tabs.

Submitted by Livingston Public Schools. More school news @ www.livingston.org