LOUISIANA TEEN BEGINS CHARITY-BASED PROJECT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 25, 2010 --

LOUISIANA —Ajibike Lapite was like every senior at Saint Frederick High School, except that she wasn’t. With over half a million dollars in college scholarship offers, titles such as AXA Achivement Louisiana Scholar and National Achievement Finalist, and admittance to Princeton University’s class of 2014, you would think that she’d take a break before jumping into her molecular biology studies. Instead, the girl that calls herself a “chronic overachiever” kicked into high gear with her volunteering work as a social media/publicity/marketing intern with a charity Amazing Kids! and her responsibilities as a journalist and social media intern for the IT Campaign.

Her summer of involvement with Amazing Kids! and the stories of such young volunteers, along with her past community service in the Monroe area and her parents’ active community involvement, led Ajibike to begin her own community service project—It All TABS Up. It wasn’t just the summer 2010 that Ajibike wished to begin the project that she likes to call IATU, but in her junior year at Saint Frederick High School, Ajibike led a group of members of primarily the senior and junior class to make visits to the local Ronald McDonald House, collect coke tabs in festively decorated milk jugs, and to promote the Ronald McDonald House among their peers. While Ajibike was satisfied by what her group had done at Saint Frederick, the work of youth-led community projects inspired her to begin It All TABS Up and to make IATU a national project, and the results have been tremendous.
Just in two weeks of the rejuvenation of the IATU website (http://italltabsup.webs.com) , a solid branch has begun in Southern California, and prospective branches are on their way in Delaware and California. But what is IATU and what led Ajibike to initially begin this project in her hometown of Monroe, Louisiana?

As a student at Saint Frederick High School, Ajibike was required to be actively involved in community service—20 hours were required for every high school student every year, and it was a struggle to find impacting community service with the rush of all the high school students signing up for the same activities. By a stroke of fate, Ajibike found herself at the Ronald McDonald House on an early Saturday morning with her friends, and she realized how sad it was to see such little activity and support of such an important charity—that was the moment Ajibike realized that she wanted her group of friends to “adopt” the Ronald McDonald House of Monroe and to make a serious impact on the community, and so far IATU has an inspiring goal.
IATU hopes to not only inspire youth volunteerism in the growingly apathetic kids of today, but to also bring much needed attention to the Ronald McDonald House through the collection of pop tabs—a supplementary source of income for the global Ronald McDonald Houses.
The goals of It All TABS Up are not only inspiring, but necessary and we can’t wait to see what happens next.

About It All TABS Up

It All TABS Up is a charitable organization that was brainstormed Ajibike Lapite's junior year at Saint Frederick High School. She had noticed that although her school required community service to be completed, the community service opportunities were skewed, and little of the opportunities left an impact on the community. She wanted that to change, and so now two years later It All TABS UP has been born! The Ronald McDonald House in many areas is a nonprofit that is continually ignored. The Ronald McDonald cause is so heartwarming and we desire to help out by bringing attention to the House and donating soda tabs in order to help with House funding. It All TABS Up plans to set up TABS teams across the nation and to host a walk-a-thon in order to gain proceeds for the Ronald McDonald House. We are actively looking for interns and for individuals to begin TABS teams (branches) in their area to support the cause. By collecting coke tabs and sending them to the Ronald McDonald House, individuals will be helping our cause as well.

The mission of It All TABS Up is to generate a volunteer spirit among youth by collection of soda can tabs and promotion of the Ronald McDonald House cause. Through TABS teams and volunteerism, the youth community will forge a community spirit while helping the Ronald McDonald House, a nonprofit with a very strong cause. The Ronald McDonald House is a home-away-from-home for families with children in nearby hospitals. Working closely with St. Judes, the Ronald McDonald House is a cause that everyone has a soft spot for. We hope to help the Ronald McDonald House and to enable youth to take initiative of community projects through our TABS teams.

Contact Information
It All TABS Up
italltabsup@yahoo.com
http://italltabsup.webs.com
http://twitter.com/italltabsup

affinity group     IATU     Ronald McDonald House     Ronald McDonald House Charitie     volunteens     volunteers     youth     youth volunteerism