Dedication, Teamwork, Learning, and a Million Tabs at Evergreen
by Dan Mullins
A remarkable project at Evergreen Elementary recently achieved its goal. Three years ago, it all began with a question: “What does a million look like?” Answering this question turned out to be quite the journey. Initially, they did not know it would lead to three years of work.
Fifth-grade teacher Reagan Niedan’s class decided to collect one million pop can tabs to see what a million looked like. The goal was not just to count but to donate these tabs to the Ronald McDonald House, adding social purpose to their mathematical challenge.
“I got to see how big a million is and how much smaller a thousand is compared to a million,” said Isaac, a student in Ms. Niedan’s class, “and it feels really good to do something for a good cause.” This initiative not only answered the students’ question but also fostered a sense of community, perseverance, and compassion for people in need.
“I learned that kids care a lot more if you care and show it,” explained Ms. Niedan. “By making it more real for them, it helped them be more compassionate towards people they’ve never met.”
The project began within the school community and quickly expanded. The first year saw the collection of 357,000 tabs. By the second year, this number had more than doubled as tabs poured in from students’ families, local businesses, and other schools within the Lester B. Pearson School Board. Eventually, tabs were received from as far away as Chicoutimi, Setin, and Gatineau.
How many tabs did individual students count? “10,000,” estimated grade 5 student Michael Ryder, “maybe even higher, like 20,000.”
Throughout the project, students learned other valuable lessons. They discovered the importance of perseverance and teamwork. “I think it’s like really brave of Ms. Niedan to keep us doing this thing and not giving up,” exclaimed Mitsuki, another of Evergreen’s Grade 5 students.
Ms. Niedan has advice for others wishing to take on really large projects: “If you want to do it, it’s important enough. Make the time for it. That’s such a good general piece of advice, really.”
The achievement was celebrated with a school assembly, where all one million tabs were displayed in five huge rows. The class that started it all, now in Grade 7 at Westwood High School’s junior campus, was invited to witness the project’s culmination. The event was filled with fun facts presented by the students, showcasing their achievement. For instance, a million tabs stacked would be 5,000 meters tall—over 16 times the height of the Eiffel Tower. A Yamaha Vmax motorcycle was also displayed—its weight equivalent to that of the tabs.
Ms. Niedan praised the students’ positive attitudes and emphasized the importance of patience, determination, and making learning tangible. “I want the students to know that this is really an achievement,” she said. “Even if they were not in the group that counted the millionth tab, and even though I can’t take them all to the Ronald McDonald House, they helped make it happen. Often, that’s what real-life accomplishments are like. It’s not often where one person can say, ‘I did it all alone.’”
A testament to what can be achieved when curiosity, education, and community spirit unite, it showed the whole school that many small things are big together.
