Helena family turns pop tabs into support for girl’s surgeries

More than 300,000 pop can tabs have turned into only a few dozen dollars in direct fundraising, but for one Helena family that small sum is helping bridge the gap between hospital care and the hidden costs of keeping a child in treatment. Ellie Uthman, 6, has bilateral hip dysplasia and has already undergone four surgeries to reconstruct both hips.

Her mother, Amy Uthman, said the family never imagined life would look like this when Ellie started kindergarten and wanted to do the same sports and activities as her siblings. Even through pain, recovery and constant appointments, the family says Ellie has stayed upbeat.

The tab drive began with Ellie saving tabs herself, inspired by the idea that something small could still make a difference. A classmate, Charlee Layson, joined her, and Charlee’s father, Dr. Brūs Layson, DPT, a Helena physical therapist and owner of Advocate Physical Therapy, stepped in as well. From there, the collection spread through patients, businesses and other local supporters who kept filling jars around Helena.

The family’s goal was to fill Ellie’s pool with tabs, and they went well beyond it. By the time they spoke publicly about the effort, they had gathered more than 300,000 tabs, weighing more than 95 pounds. At roughly 1,000 tabs to a pound, and with pop-tab donations typically bringing in about 40 to 55 cents per pound, that haul adds up to only about $38 to $52. The point of the drive is not to pay a hospital bill outright. It is to chip away at the costs that follow a family long after insurance and surgery coverage run out.

Those costs include travel, meals and temporary housing, the kinds of expenses that can weigh heavily on families from Lewis and Clark County when treatment is hours from home. Ronald McDonald House Charities of Western Montana says collecting pop tabs is an easy program that helps offset family operating costs, and McDonald’s says tabs can be donated through local Ronald McDonald House chapters. The aluminum is recycled, but the value is also social: neighbors can see their support piling up one tab at a time.

Ellie and her family are planning to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, later this summer for her final surgery. For the Uthmans, the tabs have become more than a fundraiser. They are a running measure of how much a community can do when a child’s medical needs stretch far beyond the operating room.