By MAKAYLA KEATING
Staff writer
Central Elementary School students in Franklin School District gathered in the school gym Thursday afternoon as they enthusiastically waited to hear the results of a pop tabs competition for sixth-grader Emily Bookwalter.
About five years ago, Emily’s twin sister, Jessica, passed away after a battle with cancer. For the twins’ birthday Feb. 10, Emily decided to collect as many pop tabs as she could to honor Jessica.
Shawn Hawke, a Central Elementary fourth-grade teacher, explained at Thursday’s assembly that she saw an online post about Emily wanting to save and donate pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House in Pittsburgh.
Hawke said that when she saw the post, she knew the school would be happy to help Emily reach her goal.
“Every single tab collected has meaning,” Hawke said to the kindergarten through sixth-grade crowd at the assembly. She told the students that even if they were only able to bring in one pop tab, they “absolutely made a difference.”
Emily’s parents, Michelle and Chris Bookwalter, told the newspaper they chose to donate the tabs to the Ronald McDonald House because the house collects the tabs and turns them in to local recycling centers.
The recycling centers then turn the pop tabs in for money, and the money is used for free housing at the Ronald McDonald House, Michelle Bookwalter said.
In a time span of about two months, Emily’s classmates collected enough pop tabs that added up to about 500 pounds.
Emily and Michelle Bookwalter both described the response from Emily’s classmates as “overwhelming.”
“It’s amazing how the community comes together for things. We live in such a small town, and we always come together for such amazing things,” Michelle Bookwalter said.
