Brad’s Tabs Lends Hand to Ronald McDonald House Charities

In cities throughout the country, you’ll find a Ronald McDonald House located near a children’s medical facility.

Since 1979, the aim has been to provide families of sick and ailing children a place to rest their heads and lessen their mental and financial burdens, enabling them to be fully attentive and to keep strong for their children needing medical care.

Today, families are asked for a donation of $20 per night, but none is turned away because of the inability to pay. This is made possible by countless avenues to donate to Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), one of which is the pull tab recycling program.

Cadiz resident Brad George is a major proponent of this program, and for the better part of the last 30 years, he has dedicated himself to collecting pop tabs to donate.

Recently, George and his parents, Chuck and Sara, drove to Pittsburgh with a literal truckload full of tabs—665 pounds worth with an estimated total of 842,555 tabs.

That poundage, which typically nets between 40 to 50 cents per pound, resulted in $330 in generated funds to be donated to RMHC.

But George’s donation wound up being much larger.

The recycling center, AAA Scrap Iron and Metal, upon discovering the reasoning behind the George’s tab collection, decided to equal their donation and presented the RMC with a check for $330.

Ziegenfelder’s in Wheeling, which had been coordinating tab donation efforts at its East Wheeling facility amongst its employees to give to Brad and also presented him with a check for $250.

The Georges themselves kicked in the final amount for a $1,000 pop-tab fueled and inspired donation.

“We went to a preferred donation center because if you tell them the tabs are for the Ronald McDonald House, there isn’t a processing fee. When they found out where our donation was going, they drew up a separate check, from them, also for $330,” said Chuck George, Brad’s father. “They said they wanted to match it. Then Ziegenfelder’s, we have a friend who works there, and they have been collecting tabs for Brad. When he went down to pick them up, they took some photos but also donated $250.

“We took all those checks and took them straight to the Ronald McDonald House.”

To put it in perspective, RMC Pittsburgh puts out an annual informational flier where they noted that pull tab fundraising efforts resulted in $823 being added to its collection in 2021. Brad’s donation exceeded that in one afternoon.

Returning the Favor of Sorts

Brad George is 42-years-old and works in the shredding department at Belco Works outside St. Clairsville. While neither he nor his family has ever needed the services provided by RMHC, they were in a similar situation to many of the families that do.

Thirty years ago, Brad was undergoing heart surgery at Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Fortunately for the Georges, Brad made it through, and his family was able to stay close by with a relative.

But while there, the Georges learned about RMHC and the good it does for families in need who aren’t quite as lucky.

For the last 30 years, Brad has made it his mission to help give back by collecting pop tabs and turning them in for a donation.

Up until recently, however, he’s not served as the final stop along the delivery path.

“He’s been collecting for years, and other people knew that, and they’d bring tabs to him, but there was another guy (locally) who took the tabs to Pittsburgh to donate. But that person stopped doing it, so Brad decided to take on that role,” Chuck said.

The first year the Georges took the haul to Pittsburgh, the poundage in the truck bed totaled 426 pounds, or roughly 539,742 tabs. RMHC estimates there are around 1,267 tabs in a pound. Two years later, that number grew considerably.

The Georges certainly noticed the difference as their basement grew to be filled with large totes full of pop tabs.

“We’re going to try and keep doing it every year,” said Sara George. “That first year the basement filled up pretty quickly, so we cleared it out this time to allow more space.

“The first time we had 10 18-gallon totes filled (with tabs) and this year, we had 16 of them in the back of the truck.”

RMHC does accept donations at the Pittsburgh house location, but when they discovered the Georges’ planned donation far exceeding their ability to receive at one point, they asked them to stop at AAA, which was nearby.

It was a different location than the George’s used back in 2020, and while still close by, it was the donation matching that really made it extra special.

Brad has no plans of stopping and is hoping more and more people get involved and help him in helping families in need through the RMHC. He’s already working a number of churches and 4-H groups who save tabs for him throughout the year for eventual donation.

But there’s always more to be done. Looking to help Brad’s Tabs? He has a Facebook page, where you can learn all about Brad and how you can help out.