Southern Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee

 

 

 

KEEPING TABS ON KIDS!

 

The Southern Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is collecting pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald Houses across the Southern Conference. You can support their efforts by collecting the tabs and taking them to your local Southern Conference member institution or to any of the SoCon Championships.

 

 

SOCON SAAC KICKS OFF TAB PROJECT AT BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Southern Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) made its first donation to the Ronald

Kyle Varner, House Manager at the Ronald McDonald House in Charleston, SC, accepts the SoCon SAAC's first pop tab donation.

McDonald Top Tabs Collection Program on Tuesday when it delivered over 18,000 tabs to the Charleston Ronald McDonald House. The collection was in conjunction with the 2006 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships, held at the McAlister Field House at The Citadel and the North Charleston Coliseum.

 

“We are thrilled with the participation our schools have with this program,” said Associate Commissioner Sue Arakas. “This is a good way for our schools to give back to the community as a conference SAAC and at the same time, add a little bit of competition.”

 

Over 18 gallons containing approximately 1,000 pop tabs were collected from the SoCon member institutions. The SoCon “Keeping Tabs on Kids” program was created in an effort to unite the conference SAAC’s under one project. With Ronald McDonald houses in all four states, each school will get to enjoy the effort put forth during the year.

 

The SoCon SAAC agreed that participating in the pop tab collection for the Ronald McDonald House was a terrific way to have maximum participation from the greatest number of student athletes across our member campuses.  This project is not restricted to any team’s “off-season” so all our athletes can help out during the entire year.    

 

Each school’s SAAC will collect pop tabs of various types throughout the year and deliver them to the SoCon staff at each championship. The spring championships will be held in Elon, NC; Charleston, SC; Statesboro, GA; and Chattanooga, TN, giving the conference a chance to touch each community during the year.

 

This is an ongoing project for the conference and will continue into the 2006-07 academic year.

 

The Ronald McDonald House

The Ronald McDonald House has a long history with sports. The idea for the Ronald McDonald house was started when Philadelphia Eagles Fred Hill and his wife spent numerous hours sleeping in chairs and benches at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children while their three-year old daughter Kim was being treated for leukemia. Dr. Audrey Evans, head of the pediatric oncology unit at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, had dreamed of creating a place where families who could not afford to spend numerous nights in hotel rooms and the cost of meals could find a temporary residence. Hence, the project was born.

 

Jim Murray, the Eagles’ general manager, turned to Don Tuckerman from the local McDonald’s advertising agency for a creative way to raise some money, and the St. Patrick’s Day Green Milkshake (now known as the Shamrock Shake) was turned into a promotion that funded the purchasing of an old house near the children’s hospital. With the hard work of the local community, the Philadelphia Eagles’ and McDonald’s, the first Ronald McDonald House was born in 1974. Since then, more than 245 houses in 26 countries have been built to support families.

 

 

More information on the Ronald McDonald Pop Tabs Collection Program

More information on the Ronald McDonald House