Students pull for pull-tab goal

HUTSONVILLE, Ill. (WTHI) - Though school’s already out, a group of Hutsonville, Ill. high school students are working to make one last goal: collecting 3 million pull-tabs.

The students plan to give the tabs to Ronald McDonald House Charities, which uses the aluminum in the tabs to help fund their programs for families with sick children.

Students at the school first began collecting the pull tabs several years ago under teacher Janet Noblitt. Mrs. Noblitt later died of cancer, after collecting 2 million pull tabs.  

After her death another math teacher, Danielle Zerkle, took up the collection again. So far, her students have collected almost 700,000 new pull tabs.

At the start of next school year, however, Zerkle will move on to a new teaching job. Before that happens, Zerkle and her students want to finish collecting those 3 million tabs.

“Honestly, I don’t feel like I’ll ever stop collecting pop tabs,” Zerkle said. “It’s sort of a sickness. You see (a pull tab) on the ground and you feel obligated to pick it up. I don’t think I’ll ever fully get away from it, but it would be hard to leave without seeing this particular project finished.”

Zerkle and her students have set a July 20 deadline to finish the project. On the 20 ^th, they plan to count the last of their tabs and see if they’ve met their goal.

If you’d like to help the students meet that goal, you’re asked to drop pull tabs off at Hutsonville High School during regular business hours.

To view our original story on this collection, click here .