Community Works Together To Raise 1 Million Soda Pop Tabs

By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net

There are 1 million reasons why renowned children’s author David Schwartz will be coming to Yankton later this month.

Because many of his books are based on the number 1 million, officials decided to attempt to raise 1 million soda pop tabs by the time Schwartz visits in late April.

Last year, the Yankton Reading Council, which is a group of school teachers and administrators, decided to bring Schwartz to Yankton.

Officials contacted Schwartz to see if he could come to Yankton this spring. When they found out the cost of an appearance, the organization took its leftover money from the year before and received numerous donations from parents’ organizations in Yankton, as well as Home Federal Bank, to make the appearance possible.

Schwartz will be in Yankton for four days, beginning April 22. He will speak at two schools each day, and will give a presentation for the public to attend April 23 at Yankton Middle School.

Thanks to support from community members, that goal has been reached.

“Once the word got out there, people came and brought their own pop tabs in,” said Sacred Heart School librarian Jane Goeden. “Ability Building Services also had been collecting tabs and donating them to the Ronald McDonald House. However, they donated 100,000 pop tabs to our collection.”

In gearing up for Schwartz’s visit, teachers are doing several projects based on his books.

“He has a number of camouflage-type books, so we’ve had students make their own with poems based on the creature with camouflage,” Goeden said. “We also turned one of his books into a song, and we hope to present that to him when he speaks here.”

Lincoln School principal Paul Struck said Kathleen West, who was previously a principal at Stewart School, approached the Reading Council with Schwartz’s name and information about his books. Officials ultimately chose Schwartz over other authors because his books incorporate the Common Core Standards, which South Dakota has been moving towards.

Goeden said that most of Schwartz’s books are educational, and primarily based on math and science skills.

“They’re really fun books with a lot of words, colors and photos,” she said. “He’ll be available to sign books during his presentations and will have books available to be purchased as well.”

Goeden added students in class love his books and can easily relate to topics discussed in the books.

His presentations to the schools will focus on math, science and how important reading is for children as they grow into adults.
One of his presentations, titled “Math + Literature = Learning + Fun,” will be given to students in grades 1-6 and will feature numerous visual elements during the presentation.

When Schwartz speaks to the public, the 1 million pop tabs collected will be displayed and presented to him.

“It’s interesting how, when you start something like raising all these pop tabs, things start to come out of nowhere,” Goeden said. “We were able to get to the goal of 1 million pop tabs through the generous support of organizations and community members who helped pitch in their tabs to help us reach our goal.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal