Rio San Gabriel class asks for soda tab donations

Lorie Gibson and some of her students were recognized at a recent City Council meeting for their charitable work. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY -- A Rio San Gabriel Elementary School class is looking for end-of-the-year help to reach their charitable goal. 

For 15 years, Lorie Gibson has encouraged her students to bring in “pop tops,” or the tabs commonly found on aluminum soda cans. 

“We count pop tops. We use them for math,” said Gibson. “We count three times a year during the report card periods, and then we add them up throughout the year.”

Along with being a creative and fun way to work students through their curriculum throughout the school year, each pop top collected by Gibson’s class – affectionately known as “Frogville” – also serves another important purpose.

“At the end of the year we donate the whole lot to the Ronald McDonald House and then they recycle them and get what they need for the house,” said Gibson. 

She was inspired to get involved through a friend at church. 

“A friend of mine in my church choir went around asking everyone for their pop tops,” said Gibson. “I thought it was a little odd and I asked her why, and she told me [for] Ronald McDonald House. I didn’t really know a whole lot about it, but she told me and I thought ‘I can help out with that.’ With my class I just casually started saving a few pop tops.”

The Ronald McDonald House provides vital resources and compassionate care to children and their families being served by leading hospitals worldwide, giving access to health care and enable family-centered care.

“If you have a child whose super sick, you are going out of state or having to be far away; you don’t need the hotel bills on top of everything else,” said Gibson. 

Gibson says that she collected around 300 in the first attempt. That number has grown exponentially.

“Every year we try and beat last years total; the next thousand, whatever it was,” said Gibson. “Last year the numbers were kind of crazy…it was pretty epic.” 

So how many pop tops equal “crazy?”

“Our goal was 21 (thousand), but by our second count day we had over 25,000,” said Gibson. “I asked the class if they wanted to stop because we totally blew it out of the water, and one of the second graders was saying ‘No, we can help more people if we save more pop tops. We need to raise it to thirty (thousand).

“I think a lot of kids are born with the idea of helping others and being compassionate if they’re given the opportunity. This is an easy opportunity. This is very kid-friendly.”

The final total ended up coming to 61,607.

‘In second grade, learning about big numbers is kind of a big deal,” said Gibson. “We didn’t learn just ones, tens, hundreds; we did these kinds of numbers.”

Gibson and her class were honored recently by City Council for their work with Ronald McDonald House. 

Now at the fifth-grade level, Gibson and her students continue to collect in hope to collect over 80,000 this year. However, they need help to reach this year’s goal.

“We need 42,000. We’ve got about a month left,” said Gibson. “My big vision…I don’t want it to be just my classroom, I want it to be my whole school. Beyond that, I want it to be all the elementary schools. Beyond that, I want it to be the whole school district…why couldn’t it be the whole city?

“It doesn’t cost anything to save them; it’s no effort on your part really. It benefits everybody, it costs you nothing. It’s kind of a no-brainer…I don’t see why all of us aren’t doing that; it’s not hard.”

Gibson says that anyone willing to donate pop tops can bring them to the Rio San Gabriel school office. 

“I really hope that this does continue to grow,” said Gibson. “It’s not about me, it’s not about my kids, it’s not about my class. It’s about the Ronald McDonald House and helping other people in need, and that’s what my kids understand.”