Keeping tabs – lots of them

The idea of one million pop tabs is hard to picture unless you stop by the Spokane Valley Longhorn Barbecue and take a look at the bin nearly overflowing with the silver, glittery tabs.

The tabs represent five years of hard work by the West Valley Kiwanis, who have been accepting donations from around the country to reach their goal of a million tabs to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. The house provides a place to stay for families with sick children receiving medical treatment.

Their accomplishment will be recognized with a ceremony at 11 a.m. today at Longhorn Barbecue, 2315 N. Argonne Road.

The Ronald McDonald House usually makes around $8,000 year from pop tab donations, said executive director Mike Forness. “That’s nothing to sneeze at,” he said. “The primary source of our funding is individual contributions.”

The house can provide housing for up to 21 families at a time. The families have access to a fully stocked kitchen, e-mail and transportation to local hospitals. “We’re usually at capacity, with a waiting list,” Forness said. “We ask the families to pay $18 a night if they can. Over half our families can’t contribute.”

The effort began with Jim Banta, a longtime Millwood judge and West Valley Kiwanis member. “We used to bring pockets full of pull tabs to him and he’d save them up and take them to Ronald McDonald,” said group member Red Weiler. “When one of the club members is doing something, we all pitch in.”

Weiler and Banta came up with the idea to gather a million tabs. Numerous local organizations have been helping the Kiwanis group reach their goal and Weiler recruited family members from California, Virginia and Michigan to send him tabs. Even Weiler’s grandchildren have helped. “If you’re drinking a soda, they’ll walk up and ask if they can have your tab,” he said. “They’ll run and pick them up in the parking lot.”

The tabs collected add up to 740 pounds. Spokane Recycling will present Ronald McDonald House with a check based on the current aluminum recycling rate, which is about 35 cents per pound. “I didn’t think it would take this long,” Weiler said. “I knew it would be an effort.”

But Weiler and the Kiwanis don’t plan to sit back and relax now that the goal has been reached. “We’re going to challenge ourselves to do this again next year, have another million,” he said. “We have a lot of momentum going.”