ELORA – The Elora Legion, Guelph Storm, Sleeman Breweries, the Guelph Community Foundation and volunteers of all ages came together at the sixth annual Sleeman Pick Up the Tab event at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph on March 1.
The Guelph Storm defeated the Owen Sound Attack 3-2 at the event, but they weren’t the only winners.
The Pick Up the Tab contest invites businesses, not-for-profits/service clubs, and individuals/families to collect as many aluminum can tabs as they could.
Those with the highest number of pounds collected in each category won a $2,000 donation to a charity of their choice and were invited to drop the ceremonial puck and enjoy box seats at the Storm game on event night.
Guelph Special Olympics, Upper Grand District School Board Learning Foundation and McMaster Children’s Hospital received $2,000 each, and just under 1,000 pounds of tabs were collected for the Elora Legion’s “Tabs 4 Wheelchairs” program.
At the event, attendees could enter the Chuck-a-Puck contest and three winners won prizes, with all proceeds from that contest also going to the Tabs 4 Wheelchairs program.
Legion program
Elora Legion Branch 229’s Tabs 4 Wheelchairs program was launched in 1988 by members Jack Baumber and Ray Pearse.
“Ray’s niece had spina bifida and needed a wheelchair. They are very expensive, so they decided to figure out a way to get her one,” explained Elora Legion member Jeremy Woods.
“They heard that someone was using tabs to buy wheelchairs” so decided to do the same thing themselves.
Because of their painted surfaces, aluminum drink cans are called “dirty aluminum.” The tabs have the greatest concentration of aluminum.
Ashley Woods, Jeremy’s father, and Legion president at the time, became a key figure in the program and remained so until his passing in 2021.
Current Elora Legion president Derek Bowers said, “There is a tab room at the Legion. The guy who works there has been doing it from the start. He’s almost 94 years old, one of our veterans, Teddy England.”
There is a lost and found board in the tab room because, “Teddy has found car keys, wedding rings and even nail clippers.”
England is assisted by longtime Legion member and chair of the program Harvey Miller.
After sorting, the tabs are transported to recycling depots, where they fetch 65 to 90 cents per pound.
“It takes about one million tabs to purchase a wheelchair,” said Woods.
“Since 1988, we’ve purchased over 3,000 wheelchairs that have been distributed across Canada.”
“Harvey shops around,” Bowers noted. “If a deal pops up, he’ll say ‘I’m just going to go over and buy 20 wheelchairs right now.’ He’s developed relationships with suppliers and will get phone calls about deals.”
The Legion also uses funds to purchase walkers and other assistive devices.
They do get some wheelchairs back, but often when someone passes, Bowers says, the family does not know where their loved one’s wheelchair came from.
The Legion has started tagging wheelchairs to help recover more of them, though “We realize we are going to lose a lot,” added Bowers.
Young tab collector Leo Weatherall with John Sleeman. Photo by Lorie Black
Pick Up the Tab contest
Guelph Storm corporate sales rep Lynn Vanschaik said John Sleeman, chairman of Sleeman Breweries, “was the original collector. That is how the initiative started.”
Vanschaik and Sleeman’s community relations liaison Sue Keuhl wanted to collaborate on marketing ideas so they approached the Elora Legion.
“Ashley Woods was our contact with the Legion who sat down with Sue and I when we came up with this concept to create Sleeman Pick Up the Tab. Here we are six years later,” said Vanschaik
Sleeman, who became involved with the program in 1991, noted, “My wife’s brother and sister-in-law had a child with cerebral palsy.”
Because of her limited mobility, the family knew she would need a wheelchair.
Sleeman had heard about the Elora Legion program and started collecting right away.
He recalls being on an Air Canada flight around that time. When a flight attendant asked him why there were no tabs on the cans of pop he had been drinking, he told her about his niece.
“She told the pilot, who comes on and tells the story of my niece and the tab collection,” said Sleeman.
Passengers and staff began a collection. He was given a bag of tabs at the end of the flight.
“I really believe in it,” said Sleeman, who made many trips to the Elora Legion over the years to drop off tabs.
So, when presented with the Pick Up the Tab idea, he says it “was a pretty easy sell. It’s for a good cause; it’s for charity, it’s not going back to Sleeman or the Legion. We’re all working together to help people who need it.”
The Guelph Community Foundation, partnering with the Elora Legion, Sleeman Breweries and The Guelph Storm, provides the grants for the chosen charities.
Young tab collectors champion volunteerism
Nine-year-old Hudson Cowan, a Grade 4 student at Arthur Public School, won in the individual/family category by bringing in 79.5 pounds of tabs.
His charity was McMaster Children’s Hospital.
“My sister and I were born there,” he said. He told the Advertiser he feels good the money is going there because “hopefully it can help some children and families.”
This is the second year collecting for Hudson, who added, “I wanted to do this to have fun and to help people.”
“I collected from friends, family and cousins,” he said.
Hudson’s mom Stacy Cowan said Hudson “gets excited when he sees someone with a can,” occasionally taking a can out of someone’s hand to remove the tab himself.
“We love that Hudson has a goal in mind. It’s a great way to teach him the importance of helping others and how he can make a difference,” said Stacy.
Westwood Public School in Guelph won the non-profit/service club category.
Eight-year-old Chayce Turner, a Grade 3 student, brought in 139 pounds of tabs and was selected to represent the school. The Upper Grand District School Board Learning Foundation was the charity chosen by the school.
Chayce’s mom, Ashley Turner, said “Chayce has been collecting for just over two years now.
“He enjoys asking friends and family to keep their tabs for him, emptying all the tabs into big water jugs and learning about how the tabs turn into wheelchairs.”
She added, “Friends from Denny’s Dam trailer park in Southampton and family in Timmins have been big supporters.”
Max Da Silva, a seven-year-old Grade 1 student at St. Francis Catholic School in Guelph, “took over collecting for his Opa (who had been a collector for many years) once he passed away,” Max’s mother, Marisa Sinkeldam, explained.
Over the year, Max collected from friends and family. When dropping off his tabs at a Sleeman retail store, he met Eric Huber, who was also in line to drop off tabs.
That meeting prompted Huber, winner in the business category under Pete’s Muffler and Automotive, to ask that Max be allowed to drop the puck and sit in the Sleeman box instead of him.
Sinkeldam said Max was “over the moon” about the experience and “plans to ramp up his tab collection” and “help Eric with other charity events” in Guelph.
Business category winner Eric Huber displays a thank-you card from Max Da Silva, who took his place in the box for the Guelph Storm game on March 1. Photo by Lorie Black
Leo Weatherall, a seven-year-old Grade 2 student at John Galt Public School in Guelph, didn’t win the individual contest, but he was all smiles at the Storm game.
His dad Ryan says Leo found out about the program last year after winning tickets “for doing a good deed” at his school.
“He wanted to get as many as he could once he found out what they were used for. He had only two weeks to collect,” said Ryan.
This year he asked all his friends and family to help.
Expanding the event
Every year the Pick Up the Tab contest “surpasses the year before,” noted Keuhl, adding this year was no exception.
Sleeman would like to see the event in other arenas and Vanschaik agrees.
“The ultimate goal would be to make this so strong that we can go to the other OHL teams and other communities and make this an Ontario initiative,” she said.
Collecting tabs is a “win-win,” Keuhl said.
“It’s good for the environment, and if you give it to the Legion, you are giving it a purpose, a second life. It’s creating cash for wheelchairs to help others.”