Making a difference in the community can be something small. It can be as small as a class assignment. In senior Macy Eitzmann’s Composition II class, she has an assignment that is a little different from others. For her final project, she chose to go above and beyond to help the community.
“I knew I always wanted to do something with pediatric healthcare,” Eitzmann said. “That is what I want to go into.”
The idea of it came from Eitzmann’s love for healthcare. In the future, she wants to be a doctor. So for her assignment in her English class, she researched different charities. However, nothing really stood out to her until she stumbled across the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha. She went on a tour around the facility, and it was there that she learned about the pop can tab program.
“It is for the Ronald McDonald Foundation in Omaha,” Eitzmann said. “One of their programs that they have is called the pop can tab program.”
Eitzmann is collecting pop can tabs throughout the school to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. The Ronald McDonald House is a charity that houses families with ill children in the neighboring hospitals. The foundation provides a place to sleep and meals for the families, and they request a donation of only $15 per night. It’s located close to the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus. However, if families can not afford the charge they can stay without paying. To pay the electricity bills, the foundation has a program that is called the Pop Tab program. The Ronald McDonald House takes donations of pop tabs, turns them into the recycling company that they use and the money the company makes goes into paying the electricity bill.
“For my project, I am doing a drive next week just to bring in pop tabs,” Eitzmann said. “I am making it a competition so that more people want to do it.”
The contest is for first-period classes. Eitzmann was not initially going to do the pop can tab drive, however, after contacting one of the Ronald McDonald directors and learning more about the program, she decided to change her project idea. She teamed up with the GHS student council and emailed multiple teachers about her idea. She advertised her idea online and with posters throughout the school. The winner of the contest will be determined by May 10. She will confirm the winner by weighing the tabs from each class. The winning first period will get a complimentary breakfast.
“Macy put together a very strong and concrete project,” composition teacher Tim Kaldahl said. “I think it serves the Ronald McDonald House well.”
Eitzmann’s Comp. II assignment is an activism assignment, so the students have to find something that they care about and advocate for some sort of change. Eitzmann is going above and beyond with her project; she has already collected a couple hundred bottle tabs. She is making a difference one bottle tab at a time.
