Soup labels enhance life for children at St. Jude’s Ranch

Kimberley McGee

Friday, April 6, 2001 | 3:48 a.m.

A hot bowl of soup can offer comfort on a cold day.

But the label on the can has offered comfort, shelter and transportation to a local charity for almost 10 years.

St. Jude's Ranch for Children has collected nearly 2 million Campbell's soup can labels each year since the food company's Labels for Education program began in 1993.

The labels netted 14 vans to transport the nearly 70 foster children who live at the Boulder City ranch to football games, school dances, track meets and other activities.

The ranch is a home for abused, abandoned and neglected children. It relies on donations and programs such as Campbell's Labels for Education to create a home-like environment where children can heal from their past.

Hundreds of packages, stuffed with torn labels from housewives, churches and community groups from around the country, are received at the ranch daily.

In March, St. Jude's sent 1.1 million cut, bundled and boxed labels to Campbell's to receive its 15th seven-passenger van.

That may be mmmmm, mmmmm good, but it's not enough.

Most of the vans that St. Jude's owns have tallied more than 100,000 miles. The maintenance costs are mounting. The vans they received in the early '90s are no longer in working order.

"These vans run great, but when you have so many years and six kids per van, that's a lot of wear," said the Rev. Bill Cantrell, president and CEO of the St. Jude's Ranch.

St. Jude's' efforts are ultimately for the children's sense of self-worth.

"We want to provide as normal a life for these children as we can," Cantrell said. "What's more normal than having a ride to a football game or being able to go do things like any child?"

With so many children, a van is necessary for the residents of St. Jude's to lead a life filled with activities and a network of friends outside of the ranch.

"We are just like any other family," Cantrell said. "We just have a lot more kids."

The benefactors

The children at the ranch come from varied backgrounds, but each has one thing in common -- loss.

"I'm shocked at what I see people have done to kids," Cantrell said as he stood among piles of boxes of donated labels on a recent afternoon. "It just breaks my heart to see they've been through so much ... We want to give them a place to feel secure about the world."

Danny (his last name, as well as those of the other children at the ranch, is withheld at the request of St. Jude's) is a 14-year-old who plays football for the Boulder City High School Eagles. The freedoms the vans offer are simple, but very important to the teenager.

"We can go to the mall, and on outings ... different places," Danny said.

The ranch is a few miles from any shopping. For Chris, also 14, the daily trips into town allow him to pursue some of his favorite activities.

"I can go places and not have to walk to buy clothes and candy," Chris said.

For 13-year-old Angela, the van rides are important to her creatively. She plays the violin at school. Early-morning band practices are held before the school bus would come to pick her up. Without the availability of a van, she said, she might miss practices, recitals and trips with her classmates.

These small things add up to more well-rounded and contented children, Cantrell said.

The ranch's eight cottages, called homes, hold six to eight children and two foster parents. Each home packs up a van for an annual family vacation to Disneyland, camping sites or other group activities.

"They couldn't do that without these vans," Diane Deerr, youth care operations manager, said. "They need these vans desperately."

Journey of a label

Processing the millions of labels takes a handful of diligent volunteers -- and patience.

The labels are received in a back room at the ranch and placed in 2-foot-square plastic bins.

Each Friday a driver at the ranch delivers the bins to three Las Vegas women who are homebound. They pare down the label to the front panel and bundle them into stacks of hundreds. The driver hauls the bundled labels back to St. Jude's, where Marie Armstrong, a retired medical assistant, picks them up. She spends about five hours a week tying labels into bundles of 500 with string -- a requirement of the Campbell's company.

"I was bored, and this isn't so much trouble," Armstrong said. "For such a small thing, they get a lot, I think."

The Campbell's company verifies the number of labels received at its headquarters in Camden, N.J. After they are verified, the prize is awarded. The labels are then shipped to a recycling plant and are sold, to be processed into general paper products.

Labels for Education is the longest-running label redemption program of its kind, Jeff Bedard, spokesperson for Campbell's, said.

Since 1993 the company has donated computers, vans and kick balls, among other items, to participating schools and youth centers. The company has no intention of slowing down.

"It is one of the things we are most proud of," Bedard said. "There is no limit to the number of items they can purchase, what they can do."

St. Jude's doesn't seem to believe in limits either. It has 78,000 labels counted and bundled toward the next van.

"We are hoping to double and triple our (past) labeling," Cantrell said. "We need 1.4 million for a 12-passenger van. That would be something."