It was a big job for one kid.
A Grade 4 boy in La Ronge collected 9,000 to 23,000 cans and bottles this summer for the school playground. He wanted a thousand dollars. He handed over 2,300. On Tuesday the whole school stood up.
10 September 2026
La Ronge sits on the west shore of the lake it is named for, a long way north of Prince Albert, past the last of the farmland. Pre-Cam Community School there needs 150,000 dollars for a new playground. They have about 120,000. It goes in next month.
Tyler Richards is in Grade 4. In May he decided his share of the 150,000 would be cans and bottles.
In Saskatchewan that is real money. Ten cents back on a can or a small bottle, twenty-five on anything a litre or over, cash at the SARCAN depot if the lids are off and the bags are sorted. A thousand dollars at ten cents is ten thousand cans. He started collecting.
By August he had 700 dollars. Short of a thousand. His mother, Allyson, posted in town asking if anyone had empties going spare. Neighbours brought bags. People they did not know brought bags. School started and he had about 2,300 dollars. Nobody counted the containers. Ten cents a can, a quarter for the big bottles: that is 9,000 of them, or 23,000, depending on the mix. He handled the lot.
Tuesday
Welcome-back assembly. Principal Ryan Kuppenbender called Tyler up and told the school what he had done. Standing ovation. Derek Cornet from larongeNOW was in the room. He wrote that you could not miss it.
I saw some of the facial expressions of some of the students and their eyes were just wide open. They were just amazed, and it truly brought a tear to the eye.Allyson Richards, his mother
She said she could not be prouder. She also said, more usefully, that it might get the fund the last 30,000 it still needs.
Tyler said he could not wait to use the playground. He thanked everyone who had helped. Then:
It was a big job for one kid.Tyler Richards, Grade 4
The playground goes in October. First snow is not far off. He will still be in Grade 4.
Carry this story in five words
We run a game called Long Story Short: one real news sentence a day, and you keep the five words that carry it. This article is the puzzle. Do play.
How to play
One real news sentence. Tap five of its words, in order, the five a headline would keep, then guess. Blue means right word, right spot. Orange means it is in the headline, somewhere else. Grey means cut it. Five guesses.
Yesterday: Weldon Bowen, a Marine veteran who turned a hundred on Saturday in Tyler, received over 4000 birthday cards after the state of Texas requested 100. The five: Bowen received 4000 birthday cards. Not Marine, not Saturday, not Tyler: who he is, when, and where, and none of them is what happened.