MUSCATINE, Iowa–Though best know for their efforts to provide glasses and vision screenings to children who need them, Lions International, the parent organization for the Muscatine Lions Club, supports many good causes. For the past two years, the Muscatine Lions Club has taken a particular interest in the initiative to raise funds for childhood cancer research and to support children undergoing treatment. To expand their efforts, the Muscatine Lions have begun collecting pop tops to support the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City.
For years, the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City has collected pop tops to help them continue offering a place for the families of children receiving medical care to stay while their child undergoes treatment. Muscatine Lions Club member Connie Fuller explained, “”Ronald McDonald House doesn’t charge any money for any family for any amount of time–it’s all free.”
Because pop tops contain the majority of the aluminum in a drink can, and because people can collect and donate them easily, it makes them the perfect sort of scrap metal for the Ronald McDonald House to collect. When they receive a load of pop tops (or tabs for other metal containers, like certain soup cans), they sell them to the Marion Iron Company, which can recycle them.
The Muscatine Lions Club will collect pop tops at several locations to benefit the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City. Stock photo via Canva.
To assist in this effort, the Muscatine Lions Club has placed collection bins at many local businesses:
- Carriage House Carpet One
- CBI Bank and Trust
- Flowers on the Avenue
- Happy Joe’s on Lake Park Boulevard
- The Letts Library
- MidWestOne Bank
- The Muscatine Community School District administration building and most schools
- The National Pearl Button Museum @ History and Industry Center
- Sherwin-Williams
- Wesley United Methodist Church
A new opportunity to give back, the Muscatine Lions hope to bring donation bins to more locations. “We’re trying to get more businesses involved, ” said Fuller. If you would like to have a box at your business, you may email Fuller to have one delivered. They also would like to have a speaker from the Ronald McDonald House of Iowa City come and talk to the club to share more information about how the pop tabs help them provide vital services to families.
Because childhood cancer continues to affect many young people and requires intensive treatments, working to fund research to find cures and support children with cancer represents an important goal for the Muscatine Lions Club, and they consider the Ronald McDonald House a good way to contribute to this cause. Through the simple act of donating pop tops, Fuller would like to see the community get behind this cause too. “Its’s a great service for the community, and it raises funds for childhood cancer, which is the second leading cause of death after accidents,” she emphasized.
