Caps for Charity

Another case of the Collecting Junk for Charity hoax. Aleta Brace of Parkersburg, West Virginia collected 20,000 bottle caps, believing that the caps could be redeemed for money which would aid cancer patients. And she wasn't alone. Churches, schools, businesses, and individuals throughout West Virginia have been collecting the bottle caps all summer.

The caps would all have gone to waste, but now the Aveda skin care company has announced it'll take the caps and recycle them into new caps for its products.

Health/Medicine Scams Urban Legends

Posted on Wed Sep 03, 2008


Comments

Someone in our office has mentioned twice that she's collecting soft drink can ring pulls, and when she has the weight of a disable child 'some charity' will buy that child a new wheelchair.

I always thought it was a little suspect but, maybe it's not. An example of life immitating a con, perhaps?
Posted by JDM  on  Thu Sep 04, 2008  at  12:33 AM
Oh, it's VERY suspect, JDM.

This kind of thing dates back to at least the 30's, I believe.

The first sign that it's an urban legend is the fact that he/she has no idea WHICH charity is supposedly making the offer.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Thu Sep 04, 2008  at  04:33 AM
Another charity hoax/ripoff??? Those people that stand in the middle of busy intersections with "sealed/locked/seamless" containers with just a slot in the top for you to stick your money in, collecting for any number of phony charities...

Down here, where I live, there was probably about 10-15 of these scammers hurriedly working there way through rush hour traffic collecting donations. That evening, I went out to ride my bicycle and found those same cans, torn open and empty laying in the bushes behind a local furniture store...
Posted by Christopher  on  Fri Sep 05, 2008  at  12:33 PM
Ronald McDonald House Charities collect pop tabs for the money they can get from recycling them. The money goes to help operate the houses. I could not find information on their main website, but doing a quick search finds that many local branches of the charity do their own pop tab drives. The pop tab collection, at least, is not a hoax! 😊
Posted by Amy C  on  Sat Sep 06, 2008  at  03:04 PM
Can you provide some links to where local RMD Charities say they collect pop tops, Amy? I have my doubts about this.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy  on  Tue Sep 09, 2008  at  01:40 AM
Its as simple as opening a search, but here you go! This is but a small sampling of "local sites." Feel free to do a search yourself.

Northern California: http://www.rmhcnc.org/house/poptabs.html
South Carolina: http://www.ronaldhousecolumbia.org/poptabs.htm
Denver: http://www.ronaldhouse.org/poptabs.html
Alabama: http://www.rmhca.org/index.php?page=pop-tab-program



Oh, and here's the site for MY local RMD Houses.
http://www.ronaldhousewichita.org/HowYouCanHelp/PullTabs/default.aspx
Posted by Amy C  on  Thu Sep 11, 2008  at  08:22 AM
if you want to help a person you should do it secretly. Not like a show.
Posted by Kinerase  on  Thu Sep 03, 2009  at  09:18 AM
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