When Bonnie Prenkert asked the children in her classroom two years ago how many pop tabs they wanted to donate, she was shocked when they said, “Let’s collect a million!”

“At first I laughed,” Prenkert said. “[Because] it seemed so far.”

This now second-, soon to be third-grade, class of Eastside Elementary started this project with the Ronald McDonald House, when they were kindergarteners. The class’s goal was to donate the 1 million pop can tabs to the foundation in order to raise money for the charity, which provides a home-away-from-home for families with ill and injured children. Again this year, this group of students set a goal and worked to achieve it. Benton Metal Recycling promised to match whatever the class was able to collect for four years.

“The only limits kids have are the ones adults put on them,” Prenkert said as she worked with her class to come up with a game plan.

Along with giving back to the community, the students learned valuable academic skills as Prenkert found a way to incorporate the project into her lesson plan. The students practiced their reading and writing skills when they made posters to learn what the organization was all about and wrote letters to their families and local businesses asking for donations. They were also able to practice their math skills by counting and weighing the pop tabs.

“I don’t think I will ever forget this experience,” Prenkert said. “[The students got] real world learning.”

To keep her students motivated, Prenkert lined up fish tanks around the classroom for pop tab donations so the students could track their progress. They also made a poster with a meter they filled in with each milestone.

When asked what the best part of donating was, second grader Scarlet said, “It makes me feel happy. I learned the importance of giving to others.”

Scarlet has been with the project for two years now, and will see it through for the next two years, along with the rest of her class.

She likes working on the project because she gets to help other children, she said.

“It donates to the Ronald McDonald House and helps kids that get hurt,” the second-grader said. “It helps their families stay close. People heal faster with family.”

Prenkert echoes those sentiments.

“I think it’s just about the giving back. It helps my students to realize there are other people outside the classroom,” she said. “And it gets everyone involved.”

The class collected around 300,000 pop tabs and, as promised, Benton Metal Recycling matched their earnings with an additional 300,000 pop tabs.

The class had a program at the end of the donation period and presented the Ronald McDonald House with a check for $350 in addition to a car full of personal items, also donated by the community. The class has received a plaque for their work two years in a row.

“The biggest thing of all is that the kids will never forget [this experience],” Prenkert said.

While the pop tab donation period has ended, Eastside welcomes any monetary or personal item donations, which can be dropped off at the school. Checks can be made out to the Ronald McDonald House in care of Eastside Elementary.