It’s standard practice for high schools to require students to finish a senior project before they can graduate. The project a student chooses can cover just about anything imaginable, but generally has some value to the student’s future career plans, has a value to the community, or benefits the student’s personal growth. Tyler Moser, a student at Yreka High School, started with a senior project designed to help the youth group he belongs to, and wound up also helping another group of people in his community.

Moser’s original project was to do a fundraiser to help pay for members of the Decision Life Church 331 Youth Group to attend the Christian based DCLA Conference in Los Angeles this July. About 35,000 teens will attend the conference, which has the theme, “Be Love. Serve. Repeat.”

The fundraiser was based on collecting recyclables. Going door-to-door, Moser and other members of the group collected cans and bottles, which they brought to Yreka Transfer. Yreka Transfer kicked in an extra 10 cents per pound for the cans, and the group raised nearly $1000 for their trip.

Moser said that the motivation for his senior project was, “to give back to the youth group” that he has been a part of for three years.

During the collecting process, Moser’s mentor, Jamie Nowdesha, learned about how the collection of the pull tabs from the aluminum cans could benefit Siskiyou County residents that need dialysis.

“I went to the group and said, ‘Hey guys, let’s do this.’ They were totally for it, and just started ripping tabs. They were stoked,” said Nowdesha.

The 331 Youth Group wound up collecting over 3500 tabs, each one pulled off the cans by hand. The tabs were recycled and transformed into funds to help the 33 members of the Siskiyou Dialysis Group obtain transportation, food, and expensive medicines used in their treatments at the Rogue Valley Dialysis Center.

Part of the mission of the 331 Youth Group is to give back to their community, and the opportunity to donate the tabs added that aspect to Moser’s senior project.

Jackie Girdner from Decision Life Church said that the youth group doesn’t usually do fundraisers for its own benefit.

“This was something different for them to do a fundraiser and not give back,” said Girdner. “So, the tabs were a perfect way to incorporate the giving back.”

Because of the enthusiasm shown by members of the 331 Youth Group and the importance of helping the dialysis patients, the group is considering turning Moser’s senior project into an on going group endeavor.

Moser, an honor student (4.1 G.P.A.), is the son of Rebecca Moser and lives in Montague. Tyler plays tennis and basketball at Yreka High School. He plans on attending the University of California, Davis, majoring in physics and chemistry.