POPLAR BLUFF, MO (KFVS) - The Pull Tab Drive for Brandon Scott will be Saturday, April 20 at the American Legion- PP Highway in Poplar Bluff.

The event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Brandon Scott was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 2 and has been saving tabs for the Ronald McDonald House for nine years. You can bring your pull tabs and meet Brandon and Ronald McDonald.

All proceeds from this event will benefit the Ronald McDonald House charities of St. Louis. The goal this year is to collect 3,000 pounds of tabs and raise $3,000.

For more information, you can contact Kim Scott At 573-300-6195.

Copyright 2013 KFVS. All rights reserved.

POPLAR BLUFF, MO (KFVS) - A Poplar Bluff hospital says they are the first in the region to perform a type of surgery.

According to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center, they are only the fourth hospital in Missouri to perform da Vinci® Single-Site™ Cholecystectomy.

The surgery took place on April 9.

The da Vinci® Single-Site™ Cholecystectomy  removes the patient’s gallbladder through one tiny incision in the belly button, making the procedure virtually scarless.

"Neither robotic surgery nor single-incision surgery is new, but combining the two to remove the gallbladder requires additional training and special equipment," says Charles Stewart, CEO of PBRMC and the Missouri Region. "To be one of the first hospitals to offer this technically advanced surgery demonstrates Poplar Bluff Regional’s commitment to providing patients with the most up-to-date minimally invasive surgical options."

POPLAR BLUFF, MO (KFVS) -  The Poplar Bluff School Board voted to replace textbooks with laptops.

The decision was made during the March school board meeting.

“Our children won’t have to go to college feeling like they are less prepared than students from St. Louis and Kansas City,” Riffle said in a news release. “So often in this rural part of Missouri we find ourselves playing catch up with bigger cities, but this initiative puts us on the cusp of innovation in education.”

About 800 Junior High students will be issued a MacBook Air during the 2013/14 school year.

The following year, about 1,300 high-schoolers will receive a laptop as part of the one-to-one initiative.

The initiative is designed to even the playing field for students regardless of their socioeconomic background, according to school officials.