Two N.C. State students are running a fundraising effort to collect all the soda can tabs they can.

This week, can tab collection points are set up in several dormitories. The dorm that collects the most can tabs will win an ice cream party hosted by Cold Stone Creamery. The tabs will benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Durham.

Toni Campbell, a freshman in First Year College, and Phillip Christofferson, a junior in political science and residential assistant, organized the event. 

The Ronald McDonald House in Durham is a hotel located near Duke Hospital. The money raised will benefit those who cannot afford to stay in there.

“It costs $10 to stay there one night,” Christofferson said. “With students’ help, Ronald McDonald House will be able to waive that $10 fee.”

After collecting tabs, Ronald McDonald House gets money by selling them to aluminum recyclers. According to the Ronald McDonald House, 1,430 tabs weigh approximately one pound, and each pound is worth about 50 cents.

Campbell said the guests of Ronald McDonald House are in tough situations. 

“The families that need to stay there are families that have sick children. They usually have cancer or heart disease,” Campbell said.

Campbell chose to help the Ronald McDonald House because of an experience she had in high school. Michael McKinney, a close friend, had cancer and spent a good deal of time at Duke Hospital. McKinney’s family supported the House.

“Whenever I came up to visit him and his doctors, [the McKinney family and I] went to the Ronald McDonald House and turned in tabs they had collected,” Campbell said. “I really liked it.”

Michael McKinney did not survive his bout with cancer, which Campbell said further strengthened her resolve to help the charity.

According to Campbell, although the winning dorm will receive an ice cream party, the can tab drive is not all about the competition.

“It’s about helping the families who are in need. It could be helping friends and family of students at N.C. State,” Campbell said.

So far, three collection points have been set up.  They are in Owen Hall, Alexander Hall and Turlington Hall. If students would like to set up a collection point in their dorms, they are encouraged to ask a resident assistant or resident director, according to Christofferson.

The collection will run through February 28.

This is not the first time N.C. State students have collected can tabs for charity. In 2008, Jacob Robinson and Stewart Harsant, both freshmen at the time, ran a can tab drive out of their dorm rooms.

Harsant, now a senior in Spanish, said their initial intentions were to recycle the tabs themselves and donate the money to cancer research. However, Harsant found donating his tabs to the Ronald McDonald House would yield a much higher return to those in need.

“We collected 28 gallons of tabs in milk jugs. Had we recycled them ourselves, we only would have gotten $10,” Harsant said. “I am not exactly sure how much our tabs were worth, but [the House] told us they were a huge help.”

Harsant said collecting the tabs becomes a habit.

“Ever since 2008, all my friends have been collecting, and they still give to Ronald McDonald,” Harsant said.

Robinson, now a senior in history, said he and Harsant put a lot of effort into their collection.

“One frat party we were at during rush of freshman year, two of my friends dug through the recycling bins like vultures and ended up with like 200. It was unprecedented,” Robinson said.  

For more information on the can tab collection, search Facebook for “Pop Tab Collection for Ronald McDonald House.”