Two Harbors Legion Donates Year’s Worth of Pop Tabs to Ronald McDonald House

DULUTH, Minn.– The newly opened Ronald McDonald House in the Northland works to help kids and families throughout the area. And one longtime northland group decided to give them a big hand in doing just that.

“Save your pop tops please,” said Nancy Hopper, Head of American Legion Auxiliary Unit 109 in Two Harbors.

The Two Harbors American Legion Auxiliary Unit turned some small items into a big donation, Saturday. The organization gave 90 pounds of pop tabs to the Northland chapter of the Ronald McDonald House in Duluth, which just opened its first chapter here two months ago.

“Save all of your pop tops, put them in a jar and bring them to us because we turn them in like you would turn in your aluminum cans,” said Hopper. “And when we turn them in here they turn them in to money.”

The money the Ronald McDonald House gets goes to providing food, housing, and other resources to kids and families around the northland. Donations of pop tops from groups like legion are one of the biggest fundraisers for the organization.

“We called them and they said, ‘sure, come on down,'” said Hopper.

Every year the legion raises anywhere from 25 to 50 pounds of tabs. They typically cash the aluminum in to raise money for the Silver Bay Veteran’s Home.

“We’ve been helping the veterans forever,” said Hopper.

But this year, the legion wanted to support the next generation. Once they found out about the local Ronald McDonald House, they knew exactly where to go.

“We also do community things and this gives to the community and the children so it’s kind of nice to do the younger side instead of the older side,” said Hopper.

Now the Two Harbors Legion will start over again to collect more pop tops, but they say most local chapters also collect the tabs.