What began as a friendly competition has now become a representation of one of the nation's biggest problems.
Jennifer Nestler, an environmental science and zoology senior and president of UF College Democrats, challenged her mom to collect soda-can tabs for charities.
But after collecting more than 4,000, they made the decision to do something important with the tabs before donating them, she said.
Nestler decided she wanted to create a tangible representation of the debt in the United States, which is more than ,9 trillion.
The UF College Democrats have joined in her goal, now called "Keeping Tabs on the National Debt."
The club plans to collect 30,000 tabs, which represents one U.S. citizen's dollar share of the debt - ,30,000.
Anyone can participate by donating soda tabs, Nestler said. Contributions of tabs have been received from all over the world, including countries such as Australia, Japan and South Africa.
The local Democratic Executive Committee has been instrumental in collecting as well, she said.
More than 6,000 tabs have been collected so far, Nestler said.
When the goal of 30,000 has been reached and the campaign is completed, the tabs will be displayed at a location yet to be determined.
She hopes to draw attention to the national debt problem with the project's display, she said.
After being displayed, the tabs will then be donated to a charity, as she and her mother had originally planned.
Diana Wolf, a mathematics junior and UF College Democrats member, said this project will be able to show visually what the nation is experiencing.
It will be easier for people to grasp the number if it is broken down to each person, Wolf said.
"By seeing firsthand how large the debt is per person, we realize something really needs to be done about our country's financial status," she said.
