Winnipeg teen receives new wheelchair following tab collection drive

Tabs for Wheelchairs provided a new motorized wheelchair to a Winnipeg student Monday.

A Winnipeg student will have an easier time getting around high school next year.

Laila, a 14-year-old student at Ecole George-McDowell, received a new motorized wheelchair from Tabs for Wheelchairs Monday afternoon.

“I know it will do good for me in high school because the hallways are really big,” Laila said after receiving the new chair at a school assembly.

Tabs for Wheelchairs has been around since 1998, and Monday’s wheelchair was the 69th in its history. Students and staff collect tabs from drink cans, which are taken to a recycling depot that pays for aluminum by the pound. The money, along with donations, is used to help purchase new wheelchairs for students in need.

“There are approximately 360 bags here. There’s another hundred that were taken in Steinbach. So, we’ve got about 460 and that amounted to 23 million tabs approximately,” Gwen Buccini, the organization’s founder, said, noting it’s the most they’ve collected in 27 years.

The organization is currently collecting tabs for a 13-year-old at Stonybrook Middle School in Steinbach.