Drink up for wheelchairs

Like many teenage boys, “Peter” likes sports. He participates in basketball, hockey, and bodybuilding. Basketball is his favorite activity. But Peter has cerebral palsy and needs a sports wheelchair to compete on the court.

Members of the K-Kids Club of Lord Wolseley School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, are doing their part to turn tiny pieces of scrap aluminum into a mean, gleaming mobile sports chair for Robert. They collect the pop-off tabs from beverage cans.

Faculty advisor Lindsy Jennings’ family had been involved in the pop tabs-for-wheelchairs project and told the K-Kids members how her daughters put up posters and collection jars in local businesses. Some children, she told the K-Kids, needed simple, less expensive chairs, but others needed specialized, more expensive equipment.

“They liked the idea,” Lindsy says, “and began collecting tabs three years ago.

Hallway posters, school announcements, and collections bins encourage the K-Kids’ fellow students and teachers to save their tabs. Messages also are sent home to remind parents to collect tabs at home and at work.

A coordinating agency keeps the club excited and informed about the project and its progress.

“Our first year, we were collecting tabs for a little girl named Carrie,” Lindsy says. “We would get notes about what she was like and why she needed a wheelchair.”

When the collection bins get full, the K-Kids members dump them into a green trash bag, and Lindsy hauls them to a warehouse—accompanied by a carload of K-Kids members.

“They are just amazed when they walk into the basement of the warehouse and see millions of tabs,” Lindsy says.

“It’s a big production. The people at the warehouse welcome them and explain how many tabs are needed to buy a wheelchair. Then, they weigh our bags. The money is given to the Shriners’ hospital, which buys the wheelchairs.”

This year, the tabs are for Peter.