Mildmay boy earns Guinness World Record

A party at St. Teresa School in Walkerton Friday honoured student Jace Weber of Mildmay, who now has an official Guinness World Record.

His mom, Candice Weber, said Jace started collecting can tabs in August of 2022 to recycle, and donate the money earned towards a wheelchair for someone in need.

“First you take [the can tabs] to the scrap yard and then they weigh it on the scale and give you approximately $0.70 per pound," explained Jace. " After the scrap yard they go to a smelter and get burnt down and then can be used for new aluminium items and so on.”

Jace Weber worked hard to set a world record, recycle can tabs, and donate to the March of Dimes. Photo by Candice Weber

"Jace is a unique little kiddo, and he's so caring. He set out to do this literally just to help others," explained Weber. "Then the community kept bringing them to us and we realize that, oh, there is a world record already and it was seven or eight years ago, so then he doubled it."

Candice and Curtis Weber submitted the information to Guinness, and then the record was confirmed.

"Chase received the official Guinness World Record for collecting 6.2 million pop tabs in a year's timeframe," exclaimed Candice. "And he donated those pop tabs to charity at the March of Dimes. And we're super proud of him."

Jace Weber stands among the many pop tabs he collected for charity. Photo by Candice Weber

Candice revealed the family threw a surprise party to let Jace know he was successful.

"We did a surprise party just to let him know," she added. "There was only about 20 of us there and he was speechless and emotional. He said he thought he was in a dream."

All proceeds were donated to March of Dimes, Canada’s assistive devices charity.

“After I dropped off the tabs at the scrap yard they went to a charity and a couple months later I found out that the money I raised helped two people that needed self-assistive devices to help them do simple daily tasks, without the help they probably wouldn’t have got those devices they needed,” Jace revealed.

Jace was originally inspired to start his collection, after seeing a video on YouTube from someone who collected can tabs for many years.

Jace Weber celebrates a world record for collecting the most pop tabs in a year. Photo by Candice Weber

Now Jace plans to continue collecting pop tabs, and urges others to do the same.

"My record would have never been possible without trying and believing in yourself," he emphasized. "If you think something is possible, you’re halfway there, the rest is determination and hard work.”

Jace's next goal is to contribute to his school’s fundraising goal for a new accessible playground for all the kids to play in.

Jace Weber shows off his world record breaking collection of can tabs. Photo by Candice Weber.