It doesn't take much to put a smile on the face of Billy Zografopoulos, and a donation of thousands of pop tabs on Dec. 1 made for an especially big smile.
Diane Ikonen brought the tabs to him at Deluxe Restaurant on Regent Street.
Zografopoulos eagerly took them and added them to his already extensive collection.
The night before, another lady brought him a large collection of pop tabs her father had been collecting. He had wanted to donate them before he had passed away, but didn't get to do that, so his daughter brought them in.
“Sometimes, the stories and donations make me cry,” Zografopoulos said.
When he has enough, he'll take them to the recycling centre to exchange them for money. It takes just mover 1,200 tabs to weight one pound, and one pound of tabs is $5 in his pocket.
Last year, he collected enough tabs to raise $1,015. Every year, he tries to raise just a little bit more.
Zografopoulos takes that money and donates it to Health Sciences North.
He's been doing that for three years already, and his pop tabs have helped purchase such items as wheelchairs and incubators for babies born prematurely.
Knowing that his efforts are making life easier for others is what makes it all worthwhile, he said.
Ikonen donated the pop tabs on behalf of Jordan Paiement, of Earlton. Jordan's brother, Morgan, is the fiancé of Ikonen's friend's daughter. That's how she came to learn about Jordan's stash of pop tabs.
“I love to see how people are making a difference in our world,” Ikonen said. “There are so many ways to do it. Jordan and Billy are doing this one little thing that is helping so many others, and it's heartwarming to see them doing it.”
She said she's dropped off a few pop tabs from time to time at the Regent Street Deluxe, but never has she been able to bring this many.
Anyone who wants to donate tabs to Zografopoulos' efforts can drop them off at Deluxe Restaurant on Regent Street. Zografopoulos said he doesn't collect only pop tabs, though. They can come from soup cans, cat food cans, or whatever else has a tab to open it, and they can come in any colour.
