By Sharon Omahen
University of Georgia
Typically, parents and teachers don’t encourage children to
drink
more soft drinks. But when it involves a lesson in community
service, it’s OK to bend the rules.
Junior 4-H club members across Georgia recently collected more
than 6 million aluminum pop tabs. Individually, they may appear
worthless. But, together, all those little pieces of aluminum
weighed a little more than 2 tons and were worth $1,900.
“The 4-H District Junior Board of Directors voted last summer
to
collect the pop tabs as a fund-raiser for the Ronald McDonald
House of Central Georgia,” said Lori Purcell, program development
coordinator for Georgia’s Central District 4-H office.
Buying furniture for ‘Mickey D.’s’ House
“The money from the recycled aluminum,” she said, “will help
buy
furnishings for the house.”
The Ronald McDonald House Pop Tab Collection Program began in
1987. To date, more than 400 million pop tabs have been
collected, generating more than $300,000.
The students used gallon milk jugs to collect the tabs and to
give the project a unit of measure. The top collections came from
Jackson County with 101 gallons. Columbia County collected 95.5
gallons, and Houston County gathered 94 gallons.
Motivated by food and community service
The winning county 4-H’ers credit their success to
pizza.
“Like most kids, our students can be easily motivated by the
promise of a pizza party,” said Wanda McLocklin, the Jackson
County 4-H program coordinator. “They enjoy helping the community
and are very community-oriented. And they really love pizza,
too.”
More than 500 students in Jackson County participated in the
project.
Kids in Columbia County, the second-place winners, were
motivated
by pizza, too.
“They’ll do anything for pizza, so we incorporated a pizza
party
into this community service project,” said Columbia County 4-H
program assistant Paula Poss. “Our fifth-graders earn
points all
year long for a variety of projects. The top class is then
rewarded with a free day to Rock Eagle’s Environmental Education
Program.”
Moms, dads and friends all pitched in
One Columbia County class collected 49 gallons of pop
tabs.
“Mrs. Reed’s class collected tabs from their churches, their
neighbors and their parents’ offices,” Poss said.
Besides earning pizza, the students are improving their
character
skills, Poss said, by learning to share and to care.
“This project is an easy one, as the pop tabs don’t take up
much
room in a classroom or office, and you can still save the pop
cans for other projects,” she said. “Our office saves the cans
for the Joseph Still Burn Center here in Augusta.”
