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# Local student crushes cancer with soda can tabs
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/local-student-crushes-cancer-with-soda-can-tabs/
- Published: 2002-06-03T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:18:52.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Health, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Middle school does its part in war on breast cancer*

*By MELISSA PRICE Special to the Daily Press*

Alec Richker is known around Lincoln Middle School as “The Breast Cancer Kid.”

The 11-year-old spurred on his classmates to collect more than 4,200 red tab tops from cans of Hansen’s Natural Sodas in an effort to find a cure for cancer.

For each tab, Hansen Natural Corporation donated 10 cents to breast cancer research at the City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute. Hansen donated a total of $50,000.

Richker’s aunt, Lori Plager, was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago.

“I didn’t know what it was until my aunt had it,” Richker said, adding that she went through grueling chemotherapy. “She lost all of her hair. It was pretty frightening.”

Richker started gathering the tabs on a small scale after he noticed the label on the soda can.

“I noticed that a can said ‘save lives, save tabs’ and thought ‘That’s kinda cool,’" he said.

> “I noticed that a can said ‘save lives, save tabs’ and thought ‘That’s kinda cool.’” — — ALEC RICHKER

He stuffed tabs in his pocket, tossed them in his lunchbox and brought them home.

Richker then approached Lincoln Middle School Principal Ilene Straus to find a way for more students to become involved. She challenged him to come back with a plan and she would help him launch it throughout the school.

“A lot of people would have their tabs ready and waiting for me to come by,” he said.

Richker had plenty of help from his schoolmates, teachers and family.

“If I couldn’t get to the cafeteria, everyone would leave their tabs on the tables and Joe the janitor would collect them for me,” he said.

A school staffer challenged two other students to turn in 10 tabs each day. They became two of Richker’s biggest supporters.

“They carried around big buckets and would come up to people and say ‘fork over your tabs,’" Richker said. His 8-year-old brother Aidan counted the tabs he brought home from school each day.

Straus said she was impressed with Richker because he was organized and had a plan in mind. But even more, Richker came up with the idea on his own, she added.

As the school’s principal, Straus and her staffers try to teach students the value of community. But it can be difficult because most of the students are adolescents.

“It’s really important for kids to know that the world isn’t about them,” she said. “This was great because it was student initiated.”

Richker’s aunt, Lori Plager, helped him prepare a speech he delivered over the school’s public address system.

“I just said that one person could make a difference and told them how many women died of breast cancer every year,” he said. “It was effective because it was novel and a lot of people listened.”

Due to the overwhelming response to the program, Hansens decided to double the amount it will donate to $100,000 in its next campaign.

Richker already is gearing up for the next school year.

“I’ll have to tell people about it again because people have kinda forgot,” he said.

Richker wants to place collection folders on the recycling cans so students will remember to take the tabs off their cans before they recycle them. To thank Richker for his work, Hansens is providing the school with motivational speaker Gale Webb, who will kick-off breast cancer awareness month in October. Webb also will give a much anticipated skateboarding demonstration.

The aspiring poet also has eyes on a school council seat next year.

Plager is now in remission. When asked why he sacrificed his time to collect the thousands of tabs, Richker said, “I just wanted to do something, you know?”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 3, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/060302.pdf?ref=smdp.com)