Johnny Cleveland, elementary principal at RBHS, Becky Hester and Margaret McGuire prepare box tops to send off.

By Brandi Miller for the FCT

Give Becky Hester ten cents, and she will turn it into something she and her fellow teachers can use in the classroom.

Ten cents is exactly how much a box top is worth, and for ten years Hester, a kindergarten teacher at Red Bay High School, has collected these box tops and earned a substantial amount of money for the school.

“We began collecting box tops in 2005,” said Hester. “Our first submission was in October of that year, and we only had $255 dollars worth of box tops. This will be our tenth year of collecting, and our submission this October is more than $800.”

Hester said she started organizing the collecting of box tops because she saw it was a way to get money for the school without having to sell something.

“If box tops are not saved, they will just be thrown away,” said Hester. “When one is thrown away, it is like throwing money away, and I felt that money could be put to good use in our school.”

Hester is quick to point out that she couldn’t do it alone, and it really is a community effort that has made the box top collection so wildly successful.

“As the process has grown, the students, teachers and community have become so valuable at collecting and bringing the box tops to me,” said Hester. “Mrs. Pounds, math teacher, encourages her students to bring them in. Our lunchroom ladies are so gracious to save them and to give us the ones that come in on the yogurt and other products. Mrs. Margaret McGuire, my foster grandmother, has been very instrumental in this project. She counts and bags the box tops that come in which are not counted out already.”

The money earned from box tops collection is money all students benefit from. Hester said overall, the funds are used to provide much needed supplemental items for the RBHS reading program. In the past, some of the funds have been used provide professional development.

“I would especially like to thank Mrs. Pounds, the school and the community who have encouraged the collection of box tops and sent them into us,” said Hester. “I could not have done this all these years without the help of Mrs. Margaret McGuire. Even when she was recovering from her broken hip and knee surgery, I would take box tops by her house, and she would do her magic, and the box tops would be returned to me all neatly bagged and counted.”

Hester also wanted to encourage individuals and the community to send in the box tops.  Through the box tops program, the school is able to get funds from something that could have just been garbage. As they have already proven, Hester and her dedicated helpers are able to do great things for the school, ten cents at a time.