Jeremy Minnehan has been saving soda pop tabs for a quarter-century. And he’s not showing any signs of slowing down.

“I find them all around the house now,” his mother, Glenda, said with a laugh. “He picks them up off the ground to save, puts them in his pocket, and I find them in the washing machine.”

The Minnehans, who live in Evergreen, currently house 80 pounds of aluminum can tabs in plastic boxes in their living room, ready to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House. The tabs come from all over the country, and the steady stream just keeps pouring in.

“My family sends them to me,” Minnehan said. “They know what I do, so they save them, too.”

Minnehan, who has Down syndrome, began collecting the pop tabs when he was 8 years old. A friend’s sister was in the hospital and stayed in the Ronald McDonald House. The Minnehan family learned they could help by donating pop tabs to local McDonald’s restaurants, and his parents helped him start collecting.

Now he’s 33 years old. He’s been collecting the tabs for 25 years, and donates boxes full of tabs every few years.

Since he began the project, word has slowly spread.

In California, Minnehan has an aunt who runs a restaurant. Her employees save each tab they pull off a soda or beer, and she sends them to her nephew every few months.

A patron of the restaurant learned of the project, and began sending Minnehan tabs from his business, strung on long pieces of twine.

Another family member runs a bank in Oregon, and collects the tabs in small amounts from employees and customers alike.

And all across the Flathead Valley, there are plastic bags or tin cans in kitchens, where Minnehan’s friends or family save the pop tabs as well.

Eventually, they all work their way to Minnehan.

"I love getting packages from different states," he said. "It's fun to see where they come from and who sent them."

The amount of tabs he has now is the most he’s ever collected, according to his mother. The family is preparing to donate the tabs to the Moose Lodge in Whitefish, the only local place they’ve found that takes donations of that size.

“I went to McDonald’s and asked where to take them,” his mother said. “They said to take bring them in, but they were thinking of a plastic bag, not as many as we have.”

The family happily supports Minnehan’s project. They wish they would have had access to a Ronald McDonald House when they needed it.

When Minnehan was 2 he needed heart surgery. The family traveled to Seattle for the procedure, but had no where to stay.

“This was when the Ronald McDonald House was just starting, but they hadn’t built one there yet,” Glenda said. “We could have used that.”

The family was able to find lodging with a local woman, but because of the experience, they understood the importance of the program.

“It’s a worthwhile thing,” she said. “And he loves doing it.”

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at bloper@dailyinterlake.com.