For Breanna Blanchard, it was personal.
The daughter of Kelly and Mike Spadafore was just 5 years old when she learned that her babysitter had Multiple Sclerosis and would soon need a wheelchair. Breanna resolved to help.
It was around that time that an article appeared in a local Newspaper about the Elora Legion’s pop tabs for wheelchairs campaign. It has been running since the late 1980s.
The organizers have created a network of collectors all over the world, and when they get enough pop tabs, they sell them to an aluminum company through an exclusive buying agreement.
The money is set aside until the Legion finds someone who needs a chair, and the organizers buy one.
That campaign is so successful that one of the pop tab founders, Jack Baumber, of Elora, recently noted the Legion has now presented 1,102 wheelchairs of all types to people from all over who need them. In one instance, the Elora branch provided a walker to a man who once collected tabs for them. The recipient lives on an island off the coast of Alaska.
When Breanna heard about that program, she immediately started collecting tabs. She admitted that, for the first year or so, it was slow going.
Gradually, though, she built up a network of family and friends, including her grandparents. They told others about the tabs, and the aluminum rings began making their way north to Breanna’s home in Fergus.
“I collected lots; they thought they would help me,” Breanna said.
She said her grandparents were in Florida.
“They began collecting there. They told some people they met there, and they began collecting. They gave [her grandparents] a whole bunch of pop tabs.
Breanna is in grade 4 at J.D. Hogarth Public School, and said that school, like many in the area, also collects the aluminum tabs. But, she said, since she started collecting before she went there, she decided to continue on her own.
For Kelly Spadafore, it is soon time for mom to contact the Elora legion to arrange a delivery or pick-up.
“I think she’s almost ready. You start to run out of room,” Kelly said with a smile.
And, no doubt, the family wants its wash basket back. Breanna has stacked plastic bags and containers full of the tabs into one of them for the trip.
It has not all been soft drink tabs, either. Mike Spadafore said with a smile, “There’s probably a beer tab or two in there.”
As for the babysitter, she has already been presented with a wheelchair, so Breanna will be helping the next needy person who comes along.
