He's tops with tabs
6-year-old Kade Kitzman starts his own pop tab collection drive
Helping seriously ill children and their families has become a hobby for one Baxter first-grader - and his great-great-aunt.
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Kade Kitzman was only 5 last year when he noticed his great-grandfather, Terry Rathcke of Nimrod, snap the pop tab off his soda can and stick it in his pocket. Kade asked him why he was saving the pop tab. Rathcke told him he collects them to help sick children.
That inspired Kade to start a collection drive of his own to support the Ronald McDonald House.
On Thursday, Kade and his family dropped off 20 large coffee cans filled to the top with pop tabs to donate at McDonald's in west Brainerd.
Kade Kitzman didn't count how many pop tabs he's collected during the past year, but the Baxter first-grader donated 20 large coffee cans full of tabs Thursday to McDonald's in west Brainerd for the Ronald McDonald House. Brainerd Dispatch/Nels Norquist » Purchase reprints of this photo.
All of Kade's family members have cans labeled "Kade's Pop Tops" in their homes as he asked them to help with his collection. But Kade received the greatest support from his great-great-aunt, Rose Chadwick of Pine River. Family and friends give Chadwick their empty soda cans and she, in turn, smashes them and turns them in to help her pay for necessities, like gas money for her car. She and Kade struck a deal: She would pop all the pop tabs off the cans and save them for Kade, and after she had filled a few coffee cans, Kade would pick them up and trade her some baked goods for them.
Kade had been saving the coffee cans filled with pop tabs in his bedroom and told his mom, Rani Kitzman, that they should turn them in at McDonald's this week "so the sick kids can be home in time for Christmas." Aunt Rosie met them there, too.
One McDonald's customer couldn't get over the number of pop tabs lined up on the counter. He asked Kade if he and his classmates had collected all the pop tabs. But no, it was mostly Kade and his Aunt Rosie.
Rani Kitzman said her son has done all the collecting himself. His little sister, Kyan, who is 5, sometimes helps, but it's been Kade's hobby.
Kade Kitzman, 6, Baxter, with help mostly from his great-great-aunt, Rose Chadwick, Pine River, collected enough pop tabs this year to fill 20 coffee cans to support the Ronald McDonald House. Kitzman, a Baxter first-grader, is the son of Jason and Rani Kitzman. Brainerd Dispatch/Nels Norquist » Purchase reprints of this photo.
"For his age, it's amazing how dedicated he was to do it on his own," she said of her son. "He doesn't let you open a can without taking the top off."
"I wanted to," Kade said when asked why he collected so many pop tabs. "I'm helping everybody. I felt like doing it."
Kade has ambitious plans for 2007: To fill 30 coffee cans by next Christmas.
Here are some pop tab "fun facts" from the Ronald McDonald House pop tab program:
It takes 1,267 pop tabs to make a pound.
1 million pop tabs, end to end, reach 16 miles.
1 million pop tabs, when recycled, will provide a night's lodging for 25 families at the Ronald McDonald House.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.