One Tab At A Time: Summit Seventh-Grader Challenges Classmates to Bring Tabs for Ronald McDonald House Charities

Jack Marren started helping central Iowa families one pop tab at a time.

Now, with a little assistance from his friends, he’s up to 80,000 tabs.

Jack, son of Marty and Joelyn Marren of Johnston, and a seventh-grader at knows firsthand how important it is for families to have a place to stay while their children are being treated at hospitals.

On June 27, 2012, Jack underwent brain surgery at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, MN.

As a result of this surgery – and other hospital stays Jack has experienced – he has come to know quite a bit about the affordable services provided by the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Seeing the affect the Ronald McDonald House has on families, Jack decided to give back to the facility through one of its most well-known fundraisers – pop tabs.

“We had a party on August 7 to celebrate my surgery and there were a lot of cans there with pop tabs,” Jack said. “We started collecting them and just before school started, I made my first delivery to the Ronald McDonald House in downtown Des Moines.”

Jack’s delivery day got even better when he met Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds at the Ronald McDonald House.

“I was so surprised to see the governor and lieutenant governor there,” Jack said. “We took pictures together and I told them all about collecting pop tabs.”

Jack’s enthusiasm for collecting pop tabs is hard to miss. He began telling his teachers about his mission and shortly after winter break, he got the entire student body at Summit Middle School involved in the pop tab drive.

Julie Walk, a physical education teacher at Summit, helped Jack generate participation through daily announcements and updates on how many pop tabs had been collected.

“Through the announcements and speeches I’ve given to classrooms, kids have really brought in a lot of pop tabs,” Jack said. “I didn’t expect they would bring in so many!”

And “so many” might be an understatement.

In less than a month, Summit students have brought in more than 80,000 pop tabs, or about 59 pounds.

According to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Iowa website, the pop tabs are sold for scrap metal, earning the charity $5,000 to $6,000 each year. While this is a great, easy-to-do fundraiser for kids and adults, it also helps pay for overnight stays for families with seriously ill children in hospitals.

Jack said he wants to get the entire school district involved in his pop tab collection. Initially, they challenged Summit students and staff to bring in 10 tabs each. After they blew past that challenge, Jack decided he just wanted to see how many he could collect until the end of the school year.

“I think the people at the Ronald McDonald House will be really happy that we’ve gotten so many pop tabs,” Jack said. “It’s so exciting to see my friends bring in big bags of pop tabs and see how many we collect each week. I’m happy people are doing this.”

If you have pop tabs to donate, you can drop them off at Summit Middle School, 9500 Windsor Parkway, Johnston, or the district’s main office, 5608 Merle Hay Road, Johnston.

- This story comes courtesy of the Johnston Community School District and Laura Dillavou