Pop tabs help families facing a child’s hospitalization

Dick Paulin dumps one of 32 five-gallon buckets holding more than 717,000 pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House to recycle.

On Tuesday, 15 residents of Sunland Springs Village in East Mesa delivered 32 five-gallon paint buckets filled with 717,755 pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) in Phoenix. The tabs, weighing a whopping 566.5 pounds, will be recycled and all proceeds will benefit the House.

Since 2008, members of the master-planned active adult community, which is located near the Superstition Mountains, have collected 2,326,843 pop tabs and donated $3,940 to the House.

The project is organized by Dick and Karen Paulin, whose relationship with the charity began when their grandson was undergoing medical treatment at hospitals in Wisconsin and Paulin family members stayed at a Ronald McDonald House.

RMHC provides a temporary “home away from home” for families who must travel to the Phoenix area to receive medical treatment for their children and also supports programs that directly benefit children and their families in our community. Funds raised by the Sunland Springs Village community will help ensure that no family is ever turned away because they can’t afford the $15 nightly fee.

Want to see if your organization can beat the Sunland Springs record? Learn more about the RMHC’s ongoing pop-tab fundraiser. 

Dick Paulin (left), Karen Paulin (center) and Janet West sift through some of the 717,000 pop tabs Sunland Springs Village residents delivered to the Ronald McDonald House for recycling.

Make a meal for the Ronald McDonald House

If you are a good cook or just have a good heart, here is an opportunity to share your meals and kindness.

The Ronald McDonald House program on the Phoenix Children’s Hospital campus, as well as, the Ronald McDonald House at 501 E. Roanoke are looking for volunteers.

Ronald McDonald House offers temporary housing for people who travel to Phoenix for their children’s medical care. The homelike environment is available to families as long as their child is receiving treatment.

“We rely on volunteers for a lot of things like landscape, answering phones, preparing rooms for new families and the dinner program,” says Nancy Roach, executive director. “Our volunteers are so varied. Some are groups of high school kids, clubs, church groups and corporations.”

Volunteers for the dinner program will be prepare and serve meals for up to 55 people. They must be willing to provide all food and baking ingredients, plastic utensils, paper products and drinking cups and must use the facilities at the two houses to prepare the dishes.

“The dinner program is great because the families know that when they get back at night from being at the hospitals all day that there will be a nice cooked meal ready,” Roach says. “The coolest thing is the families being with each other at dinner and gaining support by talking about what their kids did that day.”

The dinner program needs summer volunteers. There are openings in July and August for individuals and groups. For more information visit the RMHC dinner calendar at rmhcphoenix.com or contact Kathy Anderson at kanderson@rmhcphoenix.com or 602-798-5093.