The Ronald McDonald house is a charity which provides meals and living quarters for families with hospitalized children and collects aluminum tabs. Students from Brante Hayes’ classroom at the Schuyler Elementary School participate in collecting tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. The students in Mr. Hayes’ classroom are split into two teams and according to first grade teacher Mr. Hayes, the two teams can earn “daily tally points for classroom management things” and a way to earn team points is by collecting the most tabs for the week. Then at the end of the day the team with the most tallies earns a point. “The team with the most points at the end of the month earns a candy bar,” Mr. Hayes added. Each team has a bucket on Mr. Hayes desk where they can put their tabs daily. New teams are picked at the end of each month. 

“This year, we also implemented an elementary classroom contest for the classroom that collects the most tabs for the quarter earns a party,” Mr. Hayes shared. The contest has helped spread awareness about what the Ronald McDoanld house is and what they do. The contest  helped bring in more tabs than previous years. According to Mr. Hayes, “the entire district” has been collecting tabs for the Ronald McDonald House. “Since my wife and I have been collecting on behalf of Schuyler now for a few years, many of our friends, families, and local businesses around Columbus have been saving for us as well,” Mr. Hayes added. 

Mr. Hayes doesn’t have any special connections to the Ronald McDonald House, but as Mr. Hayes and his wife continue to donate to them, “more and more people have been coming up to me saying they have connections and appreciate our efforts,” Mr. Hayes shared. According to Mr. Hayes, he wants to teach his students that they don’t have to have special connections to be able to help. He always tells his students they might not know anybody who benefits from their efforts but they make a major impact on someone’s life and it should make them feel good that they were able to help. According to Mr. Hayes, their total donation is 674,000 tabs and their goal is to donate 1 million tabs. “Once you donate 1 million tabs, you get recognized on their website,” Mr. Hayes added. Once they reach their goal they will continue to 2 million and so on.