OL Daisies, Brownies Collect 1M Pop Tabs For Ronald McDonald House

OAK LAWN, IL — It’s not unusual for residents to drop off a can or bag full of pop tabs at Ronald McDonald House in Oak Lawn, but it is extremely rare for someone to collect 1 million. The Oak Lawn Daisies and Brownies of Troop 65782 not only collected 1 million pop tabs, they did it in a year.

It all started with a tree. Troop leader Judy Silva introduced the Daisies and Brownies, ages 5 through 8, to the neighborhood Ronald McDonald House and its mission to serve families whose children are undergoing life-saving medical treatment.

A friend of Silva’s, whose young son was born in 2019 with VACTERL Association literally lived at Ronald McDonald House near Lurie Children’s Hospital the first eight months of her son’s life while he underwent multiple surgeries.

“I shared with the girls my friend’s story about her son,” Silva said. “The condition was discovered in utero and it gave them a visual when he was born at Lurie’s.”

The Brownies and Daisies of Troop 65782 collected 1 million pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House in Oak Lawn.

The troop members were already community service pros, having organized a food drive for Worth Township Food Pantry and being flag holders at Chicago Red Star soccer games, when they made their first visit to Ronald McDonald House across the street from Advocate Children’s Hospital. During their visit, the Daisies and Brownies learned about other neighborhood children collecting pop tabs that are recycled with the money raised helping families in their greatest time of need.

On the way out, they saw the “Thanks A Million” tree on the wall honoring donors who had collected 1 million aluminum tabs for Ronald McDonald House. Each organization received their own leaf on the tree.

“One lady told us that it took her six years to get a leaf,” Silva said. “Another school took two years to get to 1 million.”

It all started with a tree ...

The tree triggered a lot of questions. The Daisy and Brownie troop thought “why not us?” The scouts started their collection on Oct. 8, 2022.

“To my surprise they asked me if they could hit a million and honestly, who am I to say no,” Silva said. “I looked over at the other parents at our meeting and we agreed to support them.”

A dozen girls participated in the project – Isabella Silva, Payton Callahan, Amora Ezell, Olivia Cummings, Nadia Conly, Cassidy Thompson, McKinley Kay, Kaitlyn Schlamadinger, Kataleya Palencia, Brooklyn Moore, Aria Moore and Evelyn Powers. New scouts Mia Habick, Alyssa Johnson, Samantha Johnson and Melanie Sanchez joined the troop in May and joined the cause.

On a cold November night a month after they started their collection the Daisies and Brownies of dropped off 186 pounds of pop tabs at Ronald McDonald House.

“On Halloween when we went trick or treating, we asked people for pop tabs,” Payton Callahan, 8, said.

For the next year, the girls were in a relentless pursuit of the aluminum tabs used to open pop, soup cans, pet food, cans of tuna – anything with a pull tab. The Daisies and Brownies followed fans at Windy City ThunderBolts games, snatching their pop tabs before they threw the cans away. Their great big Brownie smiles proved hard to resist.

“We were saying to anyone finishing their drink to take the pop tab off and save it,” McKinley Kay, 8, said.

For an entire year, the Daisies and Brownies of Troop 65782 were in a relentless pursuit for pop tabs.

The Daisies and Brownies carried ziplock bags and hand sanitizer with them everywhere, asking their parents' permission to pick up a dirty, sticky can on the ground so they could grab the pull tab. They wanted to help sick children and make their parents feel better.

“I would go door to door asking for pop tabs in my neighborhood,” McKinley said. “People were giving us buckets and bottles of pop tabs. Someone left a box that you put Christmas decorations in. I felt very excited to help other people.”

After her mother started texting people asking them to save their pop tabs, Oliva Cummings, 8, got a big bag of aluminum pull tabs from her grandparents.

“We all went to Ronald McDonald House and saw that we could get a million pop tabs. It’s nice to have a little challenge,” Olivia said. “Our troop leader Judy likes to challenge us.”

It takes 1,256 pull tabs to make up a pound. The troop was dropping bags and boxes of pop tabs throughout the year at Ronald McDonald House in Oak Lawn. On the one-year anniversary of starting their collection, the Troop 65782 Daisies and Brownies triumphantly dropped off the last 68 pounds of pop tabs, putting them over 1 million.

The aluminum tabs are taken to United Scrap Metal Buyers and Recyclers in Midlothian, which weighs them and makes a market rate donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities In total, the Daisies and Brownies collected 790 pounds of pop tabs, amounting to a $500 donation.

“Over the past 20 years, the pop tab program has raised more than $800,000,” RHCC spokesperson Ruth-Anne Renaud said, “These young girls are learning about philanthropy and generosity and ways in which they can help.”

Ronald McDonald House Charities collects about 40 million aluminum pull tabs a year. The money raised goes to house operations that provide free lodging to families whose children are receiving treatment at nearby pediatric hospitals.

Pop tabs can be dropped off year around at any of the five freestanding Ronald McDonald Houses in Oak Lawn, Winfield, Loyola (Maywood) and Comer and Lurie’s children’s hospitals in Chicago, or any Great Clips location in the Chicago area.

“If you want us to track your progress we’ll record them and potentially you can earn a leaf on the ‘Thanks A Million’ tree,” Renaud said. “Bring them to us. We’ll be your record-keeper so you don’t have to keep them in the garage or basement.”

Meanwhile, Troop 65782 has gone back to Ronald McDonald House in Oak Lawn seven times since they began their collection, baking cookies for the families staying there and petting therapy dogs. The girls are considering shooting for another million.

“When I get older, I want to collect 50 million pop tabs,” McKinley said.