Jim Spinler’s charitable donation has been 30 years in the making.
Spinler, 75, had a friend whose son had a kidney infection and stayed at a Ronald McDonald House in Rochester about 30 years ago, according to KTTC.
It was then that Spinler, who owned a garbage service, decided to do something to help the group.
He started collecting pop top tabs. When he retired 11 years ago, he kept collecting the tabs. He started rounding up aluminum cans around the neighborhood while riding around on a golf cart.
He has had help over the years to amass 3 million tabs. Neighbors would drop off buckets full of them.
It takes about 1,128 pop top tabs to make a pound, according to the Ronald McDonald House website. With the aluminum valued at nearly 50 cents a pound, the pop top program brings in nearly $6,000 a year, according to the charity.
Spinler’s collection, which weighs more than 2,000 pounds, is proudly displayed in a clear 6 foot wide, 4 feet deep and 4-foot tall box.
Now that Spinler reached his goal of 3 million pop top tabs, he will donate them to the Ronald McDonald House Charities next June, KARE reported.
"I might still keep on going as long as I'm still alive," Spinler told KTTC in 2017. "To make somebody happy was worth it."
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