LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This is the time of year when high school and college students who belong to student organizations gather together for annual conferences. With those conferences often comes a variety of public service projects.

The Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is no different. But one group of students from Fleming County, located in rural Northeast Kentucky, has taken their service to great heights all because of collecting pop-tabs from aluminum cans.

The state project got its start with HOSA approximately 20 years ago as a way to encourage students to provide community service through the adoption of goals and implementation of strategies related to the support of local and national health care organizations. The state organization picked the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) as the benefactor of their project.

Mary A. Kleber, director of Curriculum and Program Support, Office of the Chancellor for the Kentucky Community & Technical College System, serves as state co-advisor and said the project not only serves as a community service program but a competition for the individual chapters as well.

“For the past six years, it has become one of the competitions (HOSA members compete in a variety of written and physical health skills competitive events that serve as the main focus of the state conference) in that the pop tabs for each chapter are weighed to determine the chapter who has brought in the most pounds. Collectively, the students average 1,500-2,000 pounds of pop-tabs pe