HARRISTON – Harriston resident Greg Blagdon has been on a mission to benefit anyone in need of a wheelchair.
For more than five years now, Blagdon has been collecting pop tabs in support of a Royal Canadian Legion project. Although Blagdon makes his donation through the Harriston Branch, the tabs are re-processed through a project initiated in 1988 through the Elora Legion branch.
The project involves collecting aluminum pop can tabs, which are sold for the pure aluminum they contain, to a Guelph company. The branch uses the proceeds from the aluminum sales to purchase walkers, wheelchairs and motorized scooters for people who need them.
On Nov. 29 Blagdon presented the results of his most recent collection efforts, 150 two-litre bottles full of pop tabs, to Harriston Legion president Hugh Clunas. Each bottle contains around 2,800 tabs.
Blagdon’s mother Victoria Waltham-Kingsley said he started collecting tabs years ago, at first handing in a couple of bottles at a time.
In 2016 he started seriously collecting tabs. All have been collected in two-litre bottles with each bottle containing approximately 2,800 tabs: 30 bottles in 2017, 60 bottles in 2019, 143 bottles in 2020 and this year 150 bottles. The total for 2021 were all collected within a year, an estimated 420,000 tabs weighing 262 pounds.
Since his efforts began attracting attention, Blagdon’s been getting support from many quarters.
“The word has been spread through family, friends and our local communities,” said Waltham-Kingsley.
“People hand deliver them, or they are placed at our doorstep. We try our best to thank everyone as Greg couldn’t have achieved this collection without the help of others.”
The tabs have been collected from all areas of Ontario, as far as Nova Scotia, Timmins and through a friend in St. Mary’s who organized porch pickups for the tabs within her community and delivered them to Harriston.
“With this large quantity Greg couldn’t keep up with just empty bottles that I was getting from my work but a friend from Palmerston thought of posting ‘in need of empty bottles’ which was a huge help, along with Greg’s friends from our town dropping off bottles.”
The local Legion branch presented Blagdon with a hat in recognition of his efforts.
“The Harriston Legion has recognized Greg’s hard work and commitment towards collecting tabs for the on-going wheelchair project,” his mother noted.
“Thank you, Greg, for all your efforts. Your community is very proud of you,” Legion officials stated in a Facebook post.
“It’s really quite remarkable,” said Branch 296 public relations officer Krista Fisk in an email to the Advertiser.
