Orange Crush, Superbowl Hype, and perhaps what might be more important...

For those of you who bleed orange and blue this week must be tough to get through as we all wait for the big game this weekend. One of the Denver television newscasts even starts out every night with a huge countdown clock ticking away the seconds, minutes, and hours until kickoff.

I was in the grocery store last night and noticed as I walked down the soda aisle that there seemed to have been a run on Orange Crush so at least at my local Safeway unless they get some quick deliveries you are out of luck if you plan on serving this beverage of choice for Bronco Nation this weekend.

Thinking of soda pop got me to thinking about an article in our employee newsletter called "Inside Pinnacol" that gave us an update on the efforts of one our employees who collects soda can pop tops for charity. I've blogged about Betty, one of our Nurse Case Managers, before but since my last posting in 2011 she hasn't skipped a beat. Since starting her efforts in 2008 more than 314 pounds of pop tops have been collected with more than one hundred pounds in 2013 alone.

If you are unfamiliar with this program you are probably wondering why Pinnacol employees are collecting pop tops. Here's the reason: one pound of pop tops pays for a family to stay one night at a Ronald McDonald House to be near a child in the hospital. It takes approximately 1,300 pop-tops to hit the one pound mark. So the 314 pounds translates to 314 nights available to those dealing with a sick child. The goal for 2014 is for at least another 100 pounds which will put Betty's, and Pinnacol employees efforts past the 1 year of nights mark.

The scale and surrounding hype of this weekend's game is huge, and perhaps deservedly so, but my Bronco hat is off to Betty for her continued championing of such a neat, and worthwhile, program.