Every Tab Makes a Difference
5/11/2010 10:28:00 AM | Athletics
Sometimes we overlook how the simplest things can make such a big difference. Many people may not see the importance in a pop tab from a soft drink can, but they can help save the lives of children with cancer.
Chris Thompson is the Associate Athletic Director for Student Services and also leads the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Their goal is to help out the community and also get input from student athletes. All 17 of the teams at Sam Houston are involved in the committee and do a variety of things to make a difference in the community.
"We do several things in this committee. Every freshman athlete is required to mentor a elementary student for about an hour. One of the really big things that we do is the pop-tab program. We took the initiative to start the program in 2003 and it has been successful every since then," Thompson said.
The mission of the pop-tab program is to collect as many tabs from canned drinks as possible and donate them to the Ronald McDonald house at the MD Anderson cancer treatment hospital. Back when the program first started, one pound of pop tabs equaled one Chemo treatment. Now the money raised from the pop-tabs is used to help the families who have children with cancer.
"On one of the visits to the hospital we realized that the kids did not really have any sports equipment to play with so we were able to get them a lot of equipment from the usage of that money," said Thompson. "It is tough when we go to Houston to visit these kids because you really do form emotional ties to them.While you are sad because you feel bad for them, they are just excited because they have someone to play with. It is hard, but it is such a sweet opportunity."
We can all help out the cause that this committee started by donating tabs and also buying the cards that the children at MD Anderson make. The cards can be purchased at a variety of places, one of the main ones being HEB. Tabs can be brought to the field house by Bowers Stadium and are greatly appreciated.
"This could be a campus wide event. If we could get all of the departments at Sam Houston to support our cause we could make a big impact," said Thompson. "We are just a small part of this program and what we do can really help the lives these kids. Every tab makes a difference."
