Charity efforts earn honors

Schools collect drink can tabs to raise funds

AIKEN — Five years ago, Vicki Morris and her son, Wyatt, then 5, visited a McDonald's restaurant and learned about the Ronald McDonald House.

The facility based in Augusta, Ga., provides parents a place to stay while their seriously ill children are undergoing hospital treatment.

Morris and her son found out that they could collect tabs from sodas and other canned drinks and earn recycling fees.

So they started the project at a North Augusta church school and then spread it to the public schools.

Soon the project took on a life of its own.

Morris and Ronald McDonald House director Betts Murdison visited Jefferson Elementary School and East Aiken Elementary School in early October, surprising and honoring both schools with a plaque for collecting a whopping 1 million tabs each. That generated nearly $800 each for the facility, a fee based on about 70 cents a pound.

"It takes 1,364 tabs to make a pound," Morris said.

It's been an amazing experience, said Morris, who is grateful to McDonald's stores owner Pam Powers for providing Happy Meals to homerooms at each school that collected the most tabs.

"What this has done," said Murdison, "is give us all kinds of publicity and let people know about our charity. Every penny that Vicki has generated has helped keep our doors open and kept the lights on. What's great is that this is about kids helping kids, not asking their dads for money or spare change."

Jefferson principal Pam Hart and East Aiken principal Mary Robinson said they didn't realize their schools had actually hit the 1 million mark.

"It is important for them to understand where the money goes," Hart said. "And they couldn't have picked a better place."