If every UA student turned in one soda can tab to residence halls this week, members of Freshman Forum could collect the 30,000-plus tabs and turn them into more than $600 which could help house around 85 families for a night, according to Atonne Hunter, a member of Freshman Forum Track Two’s publicity committee.
“Approximately a week ago, we started our year-end project called Tabs for Tots,” Hunter said. “The basis of the event is to collect as many pop tabs as possible. For every tab collected, the Ronald McDonald House receives about two cents.”
Hunter said the group’s goal is to get campus-wide participation for the project to raise as much money as possible for those in need.
“For every 50 canned items someone uses, they are collecting $1,” he said. “It costs the house $7 to house a family for a night. So, for every 350 pop tabs collected, they can house another family for the night.”
Each year, 160 freshman are selected to the Freshman Forum, where they develop leadership skills, interact with University leaders, participate in community service activities and network with diverse students throughout the year, according to the group’s website.
Upon being selected, the first-year students are divided into three tracks, each of which participates in the same opportunities but at different times of the year.
“Every year, each individual track in Freshman Forum comes up with multiple year-end events and, as a group, we chose one project that we all feel passionate about,” Hunter said. “This year, we chose Tabs for Tots. We started by having a kick-off event on March 23 by giving out free soda, and all you had to do was donate the tabs.”
Hunter said students can donate their pop tabs to a box in residence halls across campus, the Ferguson Student Center and various other public places across campus.
Rachael Box, a junior majoring in biology and psychology, said she was excited when she learned about the project and said she plans on saving her soda tabs over the course of the next few days.
“Doing a fundraiser that involves something such as pop tabs or any other kind of item that a majority of UA students encounter on a day-in day-out basis is a great idea to help those who are in need,” Box said. “I have already started saving my pop tabs and plan on turning them in sometime in the next few days. I hope the Freshman Forum group is able to collect thousands of pop tabs from both students and staff members.”
The project will run until Monday.
