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Crossroads students support project for hospitalized children

By SHARON WHITIS

Special to Leader-Press

 

When Crossroads High School’s student council heard about Junior Miss Rabbit Fest’s community service project to collect as many pop tabs as she could for the Ronald McDonald House to help the families of sick children, the council went into action. The students decided they would make it their quest to see how many pop tops they could collect for the petite beauty queen who attends Clements/Parsons Elementary School.

Initially, student council president Camryn Stagg’s first idea was a battle of the sexes--who could collect the most tabs, the boys or the girls. However, after much thought, Staggs decided that it should not be a competition but instead an opportunity to unite students and staff toward a common goal. Involving the entire student body involved as well as all the staff, Staggs rallied the entire campus together. Demonstrating their excitement and commitment toward the project, students and staff continually added to the pile of tabs in the various containers around the campus. In less than 60 days, Crossroads High School filled more than a five gallon container of pop tabs which is an estimated 17,250 pop tabs.

It is a unique experience to help out as an entire school population,” Staggs said. “Everyone is so difference, yet we came together for a good cause. The project helped solidify our campus.”

Once the tabs were collected, Junior Miss Rabbit Fest Gabriella Ortiz was invited to the school to see just how dedicated the students and staff of Crossroads had been to her cause.

The 3rd grader’s eyes grew as round as saucers when she saw the huge jug overflowing with pop tabs…so many that a second container had been obtained as another collection point.

Whoa!” she said as she attempted to pick up the water jug, spilling a few tabs from the small opening of the container. “Thank you for collecting all these tabs.”

Two of the council members on hand for the presentation, Michael Bustamante and Eric Davis, said presenting the tabs to the tiny student made them feel joyful.

The smile on her was the best part of the whole quest,” Bustamante said. “It made me not only happy but honored as well to know that we helped others.”

Student Council secretary Jason McGuire presented Ortiz with a bag full of pop tabs which he had collected on his own back in February.

It felt good to help out Gabi and to watch her eyes get big with excitement was awesome,” he said.

Ortiz started the pop tab collection as her community service project after capturing the Rabbit Fest Pageant crown back in May. She has donated more than 85,000 tabs to the Ronald McDonald House in Temple this year.

Collecting the pop tabs was a fun little project for us,” Reid said. “When we heard what Gabriella was doing, we decided to help out and we encouraged the students as well as the staff to bring in as many tabs as possible, and, with great success, collected thousands of tabs. We hope that this has helped Gabriella.”

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