MOSES LAKE — Rebecca Camden said the donation for Spokane’s Ronald McDonald House started with a contest at an out-of-state car show.

“We were at a car show in Oregon seven years ago, and the hosting club did a competition to see who could collect the most pop tabs,” Camden said.

Pop tabs, for those who have always wondered, are the metal tabs that open cans, not just soda and beer cans, but cans of every description. Camden and her husband Larry are members of a Moses Lake car club, and club members worked to collect tabs in the runup to the car show.

“Even though (it was) very close, ours was the winning bucket,” she said. “That kind of put a spark in our club.”

The contest had a purpose. The tabs are donated to the Ronald McDonald House, which in Spokane receives the going rate for the aluminum from local recycling companies, according to the RMHS website.

Camden, a medical professional who currently works at Confluence Health-Moses Lake Clinic, became a pull tab collector from that contest on.

Ronald McDonald House provides housing, including kitchen facilities, at little or no cost to families that have a child in a nearby hospital, according to the organization’s website. Families can pay a suggested donation if possible, the website said.

“One of the reasons our club chose to continue was because the Ronald McDonald House had touched almost every one of our members, one way or another,” Camden said. “Whether they’ve stayed there or had family that stayed there. So it kind of became important to us to give back and help out.”

Over time the club has done less collecting, but Camden kept going and was joined by her friend Candice Towles, a medical professional who also works at the Moses Lake Clinic.

Towles said she started with a goal in mind.

“I said I was going to get five gallons. I was going to get a five-gallon water jug full of pop tabs. And when that got done, I had extra that couldn’t fit in that one five-gallon jug. And I (said), ‘Well, now I have to start another one.’ And it just continued that way,” Towles said.

Towles’ family were guests at Ronald McDonald House when a cousin was born prematurely, and Towles and her mom accompanied her aunt to the hospital, and to Ronald McDonald House.

“I remember having such fond memories of how it was there,” Towles said. “To know everything was taken care of. It was just very neat how they did it - they had a community kitchen, and everybody helps each other out.”

The two friends have gotten the word out at the healthcare businesses where they’ve worked. Larry Camden also has a donation box at his business, Shade Tree Customs, 1732 W. Broadway Ave.

Towles has been collecting for about three and a half years, she said. She took a portion of her take to Spokane a couple of years ago.

“I thought I was really something because I took them, like, two (one) gallon freezer bags,” she said. But she discovered it wasn’t as much as she thought. “And then I (said), ‘You know, I’m not going to show up until we have something significant.’”

Donations have come from everywhere in the community.

“I’ve had random people, patients and such, that will drop off freezer bags full of pop tabs. And a lot of the staff members and managers (at Confluence) will bring them up periodically throughout the months,” Towles said.

Camden said she’d collected tabs everywhere she has worked, and her coworkers and patients have responded. She’s received freezer bags and old metal coffee cans full of tabs, she said, from fellow employees, friends and sometimes from strangers who heard about the project.

As of now, they’ve filled seven five-gallon water jugs with tabs, which adds up to - actually, that’s a good question. Camden did the math and came up with an estimate.

“That’s 110,862 tabs,” she said.

While they will be making a donation this spring, they plan to keep collecting. People who have tabs from cans - not just beverage cans but from any can, from canned fruit to cat food - can bring them to the Family Medicine entrance at Confluence Health - Moses Lake Clinic, 840 East Hill Ave., or at Shade Tree Customs. The Family Medicine entrance is located at the back of the building, at the intersection with South Grand Drive.

“It’s been more fun than anything,” Towles said. “It sparks conversations.”

“It does,” Camden said. “And sometimes it turns some really difficult, painful memories into some really great memories.”

The two women said they wanted to get the word out about Ronald McDonald House, and their project. They’re not done yet.

“We have 110,862 (tabs) and climbing,” Towles said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected]. Her regular beats are health care, the arts and the cities of Quincy, Othello and Mattawa.