When longtime Norwood friends Mark Loomis and Stephen Mellon pulled into the St. Eugene School parking lot last week, they came with a pickup truck packed with bags, boxes, and containers, all filled with tens of thousands of tiny aluminum can tabs, writes Peg DeGrassa for the Daily Times.
It was a haul that would have been hard to imagine just a year ago.
After a 2025 Daily Times article spotlighted the pair’s donation of thousands of tabs to the Primos school’s Ronald McDonald House service project, the community responded in a big way, helping transform this year’s effort into something far larger.
“We tripled the amount of aluminum can tabs from last year, which is mindboggling,” said Mellon. “We want to increase it even further for next year. It takes a lot of hard-working people to be able to amass this number of tabs.”
Loomis and Mellon have collected tabs for local charities for about 25 years, and the project endures because anyone can take part. Simply save the small aluminum tab from a drink can and drop it in a container.
That low bar has turned the effort into a true community undertaking.
This year’s donation grew with help from workplaces, bars, restaurants, and neighbors across Delaware County, including Pennsylvania Machine Works in Aston, TruAbrasives in Holmes, VFW 928 in Folsom, Haggerty’s Cafe in Holmes, Delco Beer Stop in Prospect Park, and individual collectors like Susan Ruffino of Clifton Heights.
At St. Eugene, Michael Falcone’s fifth-grade class leads the yearlong tab drive, with the entire school community pitching in.
The tabs are then delivered to Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia, where they’re recycled to raise funds that support families of seriously ill or injured children.
“Ronald McDonald House is such a great charity,” Mellon stated. “It’s just the kind of thing that you want to be involved in!”
The Daily Times tells the full story behind the truckload of tabs, the 25-year friendship driving the effort, and the St. Eugene students carrying it forward.
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