Each year, hundreds of children travel to Akron Children’s Hospital to be treated for serious illnesses. Founded in 1985, the Ronald McDonald House of Akron (RMH of Akron) is a non-profit organization that provides emotional and spiritual support for families with sick or injured children being treated at the hospital.
Only five percent of funding for the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) of Northeastern Ohio, which supports RMH of Akron, is generated through the coin donation boxes you see at local McDonald’s Restaurants. RMHC is primarily funded through individual donations, and one way to donate is by collecting pop tabs. RMHC collects pop tabs instead of entire aluminum cans because the tabs are easier to store than whole cans. In addition, tabs contain pure high-quality aluminum, unlike cans, which contain other alloys.
After tabs are collected, RMHC brings the collection to local recycling centers, where they are weighed to determine their value. The recycling center then sends the local RMHC Chapter a check for the total value.
Firelands Electric Cooperative's facility has served as a regional pop tab collection site for the Ronald McDonald House of Akron since 2009, and during that time has donated over 1.5-million tabs for the local chapter. Our cooperative encourages employees and members of the community to drop-off their pop tabs at the office facility, located at 103 Industrial Drive, New London, during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“Ronald McDonald House is an amazing place offering support for families with sick children, allowing them to live in a home-like setting while their children heal. Firelands Electric Co-op is honored to support such an organization,” says Andrea Gravenhorst, the cooperative's director of communications and IT.
If you would like to donate pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House of Akron, contact us here or call the cooperative office at 1-800-533-8658. If you are interested in donating specific items to RMH of Akron, click here for a downloadable copy (PDF) of their Wish List.