keep up the momentum and the children’s enthusiasm. Finally,

keep up the momentum and the children’s enthusiasm.

Finally, the time came for the big celebration. The children were thrilled, and some wanted to collect another million. AJ Sargent came back from his new home in West Virginia for the day. Fourth grader Shelby Burnett, assisted by some of her teachers, Lilo Wolfe, Gail Deal and Amy Gubler, created an amazing power point presentation for the big event. Sixth graders Tessa Crews, Jenny Mello, Katie Hale, Candace Rutherford, and Sarah Ames performed. Fifth graders Carolyn Vickers and Trey Swindler read tab top poems, and the entire grade sang a song about the successful effort. Teacher Robert Glasker performed his original composition “The Tab Top Blues” to thunderous applause. Other fourth grade staff, McDowell, Southard, Wells and Wharton, were active participants in the celebration as well.

The House Manager of the Ronald McDonald House, Kim McKean, was present to accept a “check” for One Million Tab Tops presented by 4*“ graders Daneisha Beaver and Ben Gillis, and then, as the grande finale, Ronald McDonald himself dropped in to congratulate the students, thanks to the generosity of the Drumheller family in Luray.

Following the event PTO members Kelly Bennett and Kathy Thornhill, assisted Jim Humbles, Ron Makela and Josh Makela as they shoveled the tab tops into trash bags for the trip to the recycler. Marty Zuckerman, of Zuckerman Metals in Front Royal, very generously agreed to accept the tab tops, even though his business no longer does this officially, due to the difficulty of managing them, and they paid ten cents more per pound than any other recycler in the area.

Thanks to the assistance of so many wonderful people, hundreds of school children will now have a better understanding of just how great a number one million really is. Perhaps this will make them all