Money from pull tabs helps patients' families

Most people don't think twice about the little pull tab on a can of soda, but for 4-month-old Krista Musar's family, it can mean a night of relative peace and quiet.

Krista suffers from a rare congenital disease, Weissenbacher Zweymuller Syndrome, that has forced her to stay at the University's Hershey Medical Center since birth. Her parents, Paula and Rick, drive to the medical center every weekend from their State College home and stay at the Ronald McDonald House, which is located near the medical center.

Every time they visit, they take pull tabs collected by Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity at the University. Members of the fraternity have placed tab containers resembling houses throughout campus, where students are asked to donate the pull tabs from their soda cans before recycling.

And the more tabs, the better, said Linda Bugden, bookkeeper at the Hershey Ronald McDonald House.

When the tabs are given to a recycling plant, the house gets money which helps to defray housing costs for families like the Musars, Bugden said. The Hershey Ronald McDonald House charges only $5 for a night's stay -- enough to cover the cost of utilities -- and most food items are donated. However, Bugden stressed that a pound of tabs is worth only about 50 cents, so the more they receive from fund-raisers such as Alpha Kappa Psi's, the better.

In December, after 11 months of collection, the tabs had raised about $1,600 for the house, but Bugden expects even more money to be collected this year. The house already has half the amount raised in 1997.

"The tabs just keep coming in -- in buckets, in gallon jugs, even sandwich bags," Bugden said.

For families who need to be near the medical center, the money helps them to stay at the house, which can come as a relief not only financially, but also emotionally during rough times.

"People, I think, look at the Ronald McDonald House as a place for lower-income families that can't afford a hotel, but it's not," Paula Musar said. "It's a place where you can relax a little bit more. It's a homey atmosphere."

Last year, Michael Fox (senior-accounting), a member of Alpha Kappa Psi, got the idea to pursue fund-raising after seeing a collection container in Pattee. It seemed like a great way to increase awareness of the fraternity and help a worthy cause, he said. Not long after initial contact with the charity, the fraternity needed some way to get the collected tabs to the Hershey Ronald McDonald House on a regular basis.

That's when the Musars stepped in.

Paula Musar said she had been looking for some way to give back to the house, when she was given a contact number for Alpha Kappa Psi. The Musars have been helping out ever since, and Paula said she would like to continue the relationship even after Krista comes home.

Bugden said she hopes the program continues to grow and involve more groups.

"There must be just a ton of pull tabs being thrown out up there," she said, "and we'd love to have them."