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Burbank Noon Lions
Burbank Emblem Club No. 86
YOUTHFUL CANCER VICTIMS
BENEFIT FROM COMMUNITY THIRST QUENCHERS
By Marva Murphy
2M Communications
They come to Children's Hospital from throughout California, the United
States as well as foreign countries, sharing a common link; they are
cancer victims and they are children. The Burbank Noon Lions and Burbank
Emblem Club No. 86 started and maintain an ongoing community wide beverage
can pull tab recycling campaign, begun in June of 1998, to help reduce the
trauma for cancer patients and their families.
For many of the youthful patients, treatment includes extended stays in
an unfamiliar hospital and separation from their families at a time when
they need them most. For the family members, this period is marked by
long, stressful hours in the sterile environment of a hospital waiting
room and can also mean costly hotel charges. The Los Angeles Ronald
McDonald House (LARMH), operated by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of
Southern California, helps alleviate these additional problems by
providing a safe, supportive and inexpensive place to stay for family
members just footsteps away from the front doors of Children's Hospital.
The house is funded by community support, individual grants, corporate
sponsorship and special events. Approximately 19 percent of the
families staying in the facility in 1997 had children in other nearby
hospitals as well.
Over 1,200 families utilize the LARMH each year. The supplies to
maintain the facility and provide basic housing essentials are donated or
purchased through fund raising efforts. Collaboration between the Burbank
Noon Lions and Emblem Clubs has allowed the two organizations to establish
a community wide collection campaign for beverage can pull-tabs. The
monies received from the recycling of the pull-tabs, which are easier to
store and have greater value than the aluminum cans, is donated to help
keep the LARMH in operation.
 The
lobby of the Burbank Water and Power Department, at 164 West Magnolia, has
been made available to house the collection can for individuals,
companies, schools, businesses and organizations wishing to make pull tab
donations. Youth groups such as boys and girls in Camp Fire clubs, are
learning the value of helping others by collecting and donating pull-tabs
in support of the project. The large, red 55-gallon drum, painted with the
famous Coca-Cola logo, is the first public drop off point established in
Southern California
For additional information regarding the services available at Los
Angeles Ronald McDonald House, please contact James Crichlow, House
Manager of LARMH at (323) 666-6400. Mini-size brightly decorated cardboard
desk or countertop collection boxes are available from the Public Service
office to help remind and promote pull-tab collection.
CONTACTS:
LARMH: (323) 666-6400, Web: Ronald McDonald House www.larmh.org
Burbank Noon Lions: Marva Murphy 818-955-8018 or mm@2m4pr.com
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