Maple Grove pulls for 1 million can tabs

Battle Ground — Maple Grove Middle School fifth-grade teacher Jeff Hereford is retiring, but he’ll visit campus regularly to make sure the school’s collection of pull tabs keeps growing until it hits the 1 million mark. Right now, the total stands at 500,000, with students doing most of the counting and stringing. Hereford, a Battle Ground teacher since 1976, has used the exercise to illustrate what 1 million of something looks like. When the 1 million mark is hit, the pull tabs will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House charity to cash in for recycling. Clean aluminum tab donations are welcome at Maple Grove, 610 S.W. Eaton Blvd. (aka Northeast 199th Street).