St. Vincent Catholic School Grade 4 student Regan Vlasschaert organized a drive that brought in more than 26,000 pop tabs to purchase a wheelchair for former schoolmate Breona Summerfield, who has cerebral palsy.
‘Ask and you shall receive’ is a phrase we have all heard, but for Chatham student Regan Vlasschaert, the receiving part was more than she ever imagined.
The Grade 4 student at St. Vincent Catholic School organized a pop tab drive for former fellow student Breona Summerfield, never expecting her modest goal of 100 tabs to exceed that amount by several thousand – over 26,000 in two weeks and still going.
Summerfield, currently in Grade 3 at St. Agnes Catholic School, has cerebral palsy and needs a new wheelchair as she grows, according to Janna Vlasschaert, mom to Regan and teacher at Winston Churchill Elementary School.
“I thought it would be nice for our school to do something because Breona used to go there and Mom thought it would be nice for the whole school to be involved,” Regan said. “One hundred was my first goal, and then I got past it and it just felt good to get this many pop tabs for Breona.”
The 9-year-old student started the project at the beginning of May with the help of St. Vincent teacher Tammie Coristine, who sat in on recesses while Regan and her friends counted the pop tabs and helped with announcements.
“I picked a special teacher, Mrs. Coristine and it started out just me and her, then my friends wanted to help too – Maddy, Delani, Lauren and Riley. We made some announcements and then the tabs just started coming in and I was really surprised,” Regan explained. “There was one JK/SK little boy who brought in one tab and he was so excited.”
“Regan gave up a lot of recesses for a couple of weeks,” Mrs. Coristine said. “She has a very kind heart and likes to help people.”
While they have exceeded the goals set, Regan said they would love to get about 400 tabs to bring the total to 30,000 and the more tabs, the more people who can be helped.
“The Tabs 4 Kids program sells the tabs by the pound to buy wheelchairs,” Janna explained. “The cost of a wheelchair for Breona is about $3,600 and we are going to give her the tabs this week. Anything over and above what Breona needs will be passed on to the next person in need. This wheelchair will be the 42nd one being given out by the organization.”
The school is still accepting pop tabs from students and anyone in the community is welcome to drop off tabs at St. Vincent at 9399 McNaughton Ave. E. in Chatham.
