During the Terry Fox Relay in September two Prince Albert families made a significant donation of collected pull tabs.
What began as a hobby has turned into a sizable donation to help raise funds and awareness about childhood cancer.
Travis Mahussier and Kaitlyn Gryba have been collecting the tabs used to open canned drinks for around five to six years. In September, they donated their collection to Small But Mighty, an organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research as well as supports Saskatchewan families who are facing a new cancer diagnosis.
Both Travis and Kaitlyn are a part of Inclusion Saskatchewan. Travis’ sister Marcia Vogt the idea came about because of her daughter’s interest.
“My daughter learnt in school that if we collected enough aluminium tabs, they would go to people who needed wheelchairs or any other type of support, so she started collecting them,” Vogt explained. “I think we had maybe a small grocery bag. We were telling her uncle, Travis, how we were collecting tabs, and then, because Travis is so connected in the community, he was collecting tenfold the amount of tabs.”
Travis took over the collection and recruited his best friend, Kaitlyn, to help. The two have extra hands in collecting them as family and friends from across the prairies send in the tabs they find.
“Everyone was trying to send tabs in for this project,” Vogt said. “Kaitlyn’s family brought a whole suitcase on a plane, we brought bags back from Winnipeg, everyone was sending them in.
“Travis is in an interactive summer program, and a lot of the kids would give him tabs to collect to throw in the bins, and he was literally getting them from everywhere.”
The two collected so many tabs this year that they ended up with two large bins weighing around 100 pounds.
Travis visits Kaitlyn frequently and the Gryba family became involved. The donations grew so that it went from a jar to the two large bins that were donated.
Chelsea Mitchell, a Prince Albert advocate, is a representative of both the Terry Fox Run and Small But Mighty Saskatchewan.
Small But Mighty is an organization that raises funds for childhood cancer research as well as supports Saskatchewan families who are facing new cancer diagnosis. What started as Silver For Gold has raised thousands of dollars for childhood cancer over the years through pop can tab collection.
This year Small But Mighty is keeping 100 per cent of the proceeds in Saskatchewan to help Saskatchewan families dealing with newly diagnosed cancer with their children.
Mitchell brought the donations to Saskatoon on Sept. 13 she said that other families were collecting for Small But Mighty but they also took a large donation from Venice House on Central.
“Then Small but Mighty partnered with BN Metals in Saskatchewan. I’m not sure if they’re matching it this year, but they’re the ones that gave the funds to the Small but Mighty organization to fight childhood cancer in Canada,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said that $4,500 was donated last year just from the tabs alone. Mitchell said the donation from the Vogt and Gryba families weighed 133 pounds.
She also said that they were still collecting donations ahead of the donation day.
“I have buckets full at home too from other people who have been dropping them off at our house and with Venice House and stuff too,” she added. “They end up actually using grain bags to bring them all to me.”
The tabs are given to BN Metals, where they are recycled, and the money made from the tabs is donated to Small But Mighty SK.
Vogt said that they have been collecting the tabs overall for about six years and her daughter started when she was seven years old because of Mahussier and Gryba.
“They’re very connected. I think everyone knows Travis and my mom. It’s quite crazy.
Travis’ mother the late Gloria Mahussier wanted the donation done at a cancer event and the Terry Fox Relay was the upcoming one.
Marcia said she had no idea how many pull tabs were in the donation.
“I don’t know, hundreds of thousands are in there. It’s a lot…. If you count like a hundred off, that’s only a handful. That’s a lot of tabs. I don’t even know if I could gander that as a guess,” Vogt said.
-With Files from Emokhare Paul Anthony/Daily Herald
