A little off the top

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

Rhonda Deshotel never gave much thought to saving pull tabs from aluminum cans.
Like many other people, Deshotel would open up her favorite can of soda (in her case Dr. Pepper), proceed to drink the contents and then just discard the can in the trash or maybe a recycling bin.
“We all throw the tabs away,” Deshotel said. “It is a habit just like anything else.”
But Deshotel is trying to change that habit as she has gone from discarding tabs to collecting the tiny pieces of metal for the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Memphis, Tennessee. In fact, Deshotel is delivering her second load of tabs to the charity this weekend.
How Deshotel went from throwing tabs away to making donation trips stems from a Facebook message from someone looking to make a difference, Belinda Guillory.
The Basile High teacher prides herself on having her students read articles on how to better their community. That reading initiative in her classroom sparked an idea amongst her students last October.
“My students brought up the idea about collecting pull tabs and I certainly ran with it,” Guillory said. “We then made it about the entire school, grades 5th through 12th. We created a competition and whichever grade collected the most would win a prize.”
The 5th graders ultimately won the contest as the entire school ended up collecting 36 gallons worth of pull tabs or four crawfish sacks full.
The only problem then for Guillory was finding someone from the area to donate the tabs to. That’s when Guillory saw a post by Deshotel about her two-year-old niece Brynn Reviere, who was diagnosed with Leukemia at four months old.
 Reviere was originally treated in Lafayette but relapsed and then was admitted to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. She underwent a bone marrow transplant on May 5th at St. Judes and relapsed about a month into transplant and is currently being treated in a relapse study.
“I knew several families close to us that went to St. Jude but never thought it would hit that close to home,” Deshotel said. “Once it did though we were able to visit over there and it opened a whole new world to us.”
Deshotel  began posting words of encouragement on her Facebook wall about her niece and family. Guillory saw one of those posts and sent her message.
“It kind of happened by accident,” Deshotel said. “I got a Facebook message from Belinda stating that Basile High School had collected a bunch of tabs and they were looking to find someone to donate it to. Belinda had seen my post on my page about my niece and she asked if she could donate it in her name.”
“I was overwhelmed with gratitude to find someone in the area to donate the tabs to,” Guillory said.
Deshotel was so humbled by the donation that she once again took to Facebook to share the news with her followers. That additional post would spark even more donations.
“When I posted the picture on my Facebook page saying what they had done I started getting people saying ‘hey I have tabs I just didn’t know what to do with them,’” Deshotel said.
Deshotel began getting donations at her job at Cabot Corporation and also at her home. By the time she made her trip to deliver the tabs last month, her collection had grown from 36 gallons to 50 gallons.
The experience has inspired Deshotel to further expand the scope of donations. She is planning to set up a donation bin at her husband’s shop in Ville Platte, Deshotels Tire & Service Center. In addition she is planning on reaching out to other schools, businesses  and even bars in the area. That way Deshotel can help raise even more money for the charity, which received a reported $31,235.29 from pull tabs alone in 2014.
Even with her expansion plans, Deshotel is still making sure she is still doing her part every time she picks up a can of her favorite soda.
“I am trying to train myself every time I am drinking a soda can to take the tab off right away,” Deshotel said. “That can be new habit for all of us and one that can make a difference.”