It all started with a slumber party.
“I came up with the idea because one day my friend slept over at my house and I told her about collecting tabs, so at school she brought me a tab,” said Deanna Pauline, a 4th-grader at Saddlewood Elementary School.
Now, Pauline, 9, is challenging her schoolmates to bring in the tabs from the tops of aluminum cans during the month of February. Then, she’ll deliver them to the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Albany for its Pop Tabs Collection program.
“I just want to collect them to say ‘thank you’ for helping me,” said Pauline.
In her eyes, she has a lot to say ‘thank you’ for. She stayed at a RMH in Pittsburgh when she was getting further evaluation following an intracranial hemorrhage. A big part of the organization’s mission is to set up the families of children in the hospital with lodging at or near the hospital and take care of other needs, so the family can be at a child’s side.
“When we stayed in the house in Pittsburgh it was just so beautiful and everything was like a hotel and … the kids there, they were really fun too,” said Pauline.
Pauline said she hopes collecting the tabs will help some of the kids who aren’t as lucky as she is.
“That made me want to collect more tabs because there are some serious kids out there that need help,” said Pauline.
What started as a tab collection among family and friends turned into a school-wide effort when her teacher, Lisa DeStaso-Jones, heard her story.
“She came to me and … said ‘Can I make an announcement in class and ask my classmates to bring these in?’” said DeStaso-Jones. “I said, ‘Don’t stop there.’”
The chance to turn her personal philanthropy project into something bigger thrilled Pauline.
“I just felt really, really happy,” said Pauline. “We talked to my principal and he said we could do it so we all made posters and nicknamed it ‘Deanna’s Big Dream’ on every poster.”
Pauline’s ambition to her cause is unwavering, said DeStaso-Jones.
“She turned to me and said, ‘You know Mrs. DJ, I just want to make a difference,’ and I said, ‘You already made a difference,’” said DeStaso-Jones.
Deb Ross, director of the RMH in Albany, said Pauline’s eagerness to give back is “touching.”
“I think it’s wonderful when children take on a mission such as this to give back and how the circle of love that they receive continues to come around,” said Ross. “I think it’s really precious that she is taking such leadership and that the seeds are planted in such a young little heart.”
Ross said the RMH gets between 70 and 90 cents per pound of aluminum tabs when they’re recycled, and that helps keep the doors open.
Deanna’s Big Dream goes hand-in-hand with Saddlewood’s character education month theme of “friendship.”
Deanna’s mother, Michele, wasn’t surprised that her daughter decided she wanted to give back all on her own.
“I always knew that Deanna had something with her. She’s always been a very helpful child ever since she was just a baby, always wanting to do something or help someone,” said Michele Pauline.
Pauline might always be ready to lend a hand to others but she said nobody knows what it’s like for someone to help you in such a big way.
“When I had my brain problem, you can’t just sit there all day in a chair. My mom did because she’s always right next to me but my other family members can’t just sit there,” said Pauline. “I just want to say ‘thank you’ for having my family at their house.”
Michele Pauline also wants to say “thank you,” but to her daughter.
“She’s my angel, she’s keeping me strong. She’s my rock and she’s stronger than my entire family and myself,” said Michele Pauline.
When Pauline isn’t dreaming up tab collection projects, she likes to play with her cousins, ride her bike and scooter and play the piano and guitar.
“I’m just learning now. I’m teaching myself, really. I like music,” said Pauline.