Washington man collects pop tabs for charity

Washington resident Harrison Jones is one of a kind. For his whole life, he has endeavored to help others. Jones has done that by collecting the tabs off pop cans and donating them to the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City, where they assist the families of patients at the University of Iowa Children?s Hospital. Jones can boast of collecting 180 pounds of tabs over a six-month time frame.

Jones was born with a mental disability. Very little is known about his early life, other than his year of birth (Jones is 75). At the age of 12, he was taken to the Glenwood State Hospital School, an institution for mentally handicapped people. In 1981, Jones moved from Glenwood to Washington, where he began using ResCare services (now Optimae LifeServices), which provides 24-hour supervision of mentally challenged individuals.

Renee Pfeifer is the vice president of facility operations at the Washington County Development Center (WCDC) and has known Jones for many years. Jones began working at WCDC in 1994 and worked there continuously until his retirement last year. At that time, he was placed in a program known as ?adult dayhab,? in which the elderly socialize with one another during the day.

?Adult dayhab is something many of our older individuals will retire to,? said Pfeifer. ?To socialize, the members go to the movie theater, swimming pool, library, the Community Y, the Cheese Factory and the airport. They also go on tours and they like to go out to eat a lot.?

The members of WCDC have a meeting with the staff twice a year to check on their progress.

?We talk about the things they?ve accomplished and their hopes and dreams,? said Pfeifer.

At one of Jones?s meetings, someone suggested Jones could stay active in his retirement through volunteer work.

?I don?t know who suggested pulling the tabs off pop cans for the Ronald McDonald House, but when Harry heard it he was very interested in doing it. He took off with it,? said Pfeifer.

Jones took his volunteer work seriously, leaving no tab un-pulled. He collected cans at home and asked his friends for them. He scoured the neighborhood in search of tab-bearing cans.

Although Jones found cans on his own, the great bulk of tabs he pulled came from cans gathered by WCDC. The development center collects cans from grocery stores, bars, restaurants, schools and factories. The center then sorts the cans by brand and sells them back to the soft drink manufacturers.

Jones was the first WCDC member to pull the tabs off the cans. Pfeifer said he loved what he did, as evidenced by the time and effort he put into it.

?Harrison was at WCDC for six hours during the day, and he spent three or four of those hours pulling tabs,? said Pfeifer.

Jones worked with cans for quite a while even before his volunteer project involving the tabs. In the past, Jones worked on WCDC?s ?can line? sorting the cans. He also enjoyed going on the ?can run? which consisted of riding in a truck that picked up the cans at the can drop-off points around town.

Jones amassed his tabs in gallon-sized jugs. He and about 20 other people traveled to the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City for a tour. Jones took his tabs with him, along with many other donated items such as food and paper products. When he set foot inside the Ronald McDonald House, he was finally able to see the fruits of his labor.

?Harrison was sort of the man-of-the-hour,? said Pfeifer. ?He got his picture taken with the lady who runs the House.?

The Ronald McDonald House provides a place to stay for the families of pediatric (child) patients treated at the University of Iowa Children?s Hospital. The House sells the tabs at a rate of 50 cents per pound. In a typical year, the House sells 18,000 pounds of tabs.

Jake Sommer, assistant director of the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City, said manufacturers like the tabs because they are pure aluminum. The tabs are melted down and then used in other metallic products. He said the nice thing about the pop tab drive is that it does not deprive the donor from the 5-cent can deposit.     

?The money from the tabs supports the families who stay here,? said Somner. ?It covers the cost to keep these rooms open, which we provide at a reduced rate.?

The Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City can accommodate 31 families. Families who stay there pay $15 a night.

?The average stay for a family is nine nights,? said Somner. ?Some families stay for one night while others stay for up to a year while their child receives treatment at the hospital.?

Jones is now home-bound and not able to collect tabs as he used to. However, the tradition he began of working with the Ronald McDonald House has continued since he left WCDC. Last Christmas, a number of WCDC participants bought toys for the Ronald McDonald House.

Pfeifer said Harrison has made a number of friends at WCDC over the years.

?Harrison knows a lot of people, and a lot of people know Harrison,? she said.

Jones and his friends at WCDC have performed a number of jobs through the organization. WCDC crews do janitorial work, clean businesses downtown and wash windows. There is a kitchen and cafeteria at WCDC, and some of the members help prepare and serve the lunch.

?Some of our individuals work at Goodwill,? said Pfeifer. ?We do all the laundry at both of the nursing homes in town. We also shred. Harrison has done some shredding.?

?I did a lot of them,? said Jones, referring to the jobs offered at WCDC.   

Optimae Service Coordinator Dolores Carpenter said there are numerous opportunities for work and pleasure for people with disabilities who live in Washington County.

Jodi Reed has been Jones?s guardian for the past 10 years and has known him for 20 years. She met Jones through her work with ResCare.

?It was love at first sight,? said Reed.

Reed said Jones thoroughly enjoyed pulling pop tabs.

?It was his favorite thing to do at WCDC,? she said. ?It was really cool when he got to go to the Ronald McDonald House to see his contribution.?

When Jones was more mobile, he liked to go on walks in town. Carpenter and Reed remember a funny story of the time they gave Jones a walkie-talkie, so they could call him in case he stayed out too long or if he got lost.

Carpenter said, ?One time, the staff called him and asked, ?Harrison, where are you?? He said, ?I?m right here.? We asked him, ?What is around you?? and all he said was that he could see some trees.?

?I think he figured out how to turn off the walkie-talkies,? said Reed. ?That was when someone had to walk with him.?