Students give back to community through “Trash to Treasure” event

Terence Kennedy sorts through the many donations.

Fort Worth, TX

5/22/2007

In what is becoming a tradition, TCU took the old adage; one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, to heart this May as it recycled gently used items donated by students. This effort, titled “TCU Trash to Treasure,” collected items, that would have otherwise been left behind in the residence halls and eventually thrown away, and distributed them to community members who can put the items to good use.

Prior to 2006, University Ministries took charge of similar events. Trash to Treasure was born out of a collaboration between Residential Services and the Center for Community Involvement & Service-Learning (CISL) last spring in an attempt to create a structure that allowed staff and faculty to be a part of the collection, sorting and distribution process. The recipient of Student Affairs’ William Tucker Award for Collaborative Programming, Trash to Treasure made its return this spring.

The committee set out to educate students about the needs in the community and encouraged donations that directly benefit specific agencies. The beneficiaries this year included:

Communities in Schools - a stay-in-school program sponsored by the Texas Legislature. It uses a case management technique to prevent dropouts, help students stay in school, successfully learn and prepare for life.

Tarrant Area Food Bank - an agency which works to eliminate hunger in our city and 13 surrounding counties by providing food, education and other resources.

Books for Africa - a program that collects, sorts, ships and distributes books to children in Africa and works to end the book famine in Africa.

Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth - Founded in 1949, Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth Inc. was built on the heritage of creating jobs by collecting unwanted household goods, then employing people to repair and resell them with the income from resold goods paying the worker’s wages and selling reclaimed items to anyone at affordable price to become a dynamic force that empowers those who seek not an open hand, but the open door of opportunity.

Samaritan House - a nonprofit agency that provides housing, medical treatment and life skills training for homeless people with HIV.

Berry Good Buys - Sales revenue from Berry Good Buys provides funding for on-going services for the victims of domestic violence and serves as a source of items for SafeHaven clients

Terence Kennedy, a TCU graduate assistant in Community Involvement & Service-Learning, coordinated the weeklong event with ease. Boxes were distributed to 21 residence halls across campus. Residence hall directors and RAs distributed flyers, table tents, and encouraged students to donate at house meetings. More than 25 staff, faculty and alumni volunteered to pick up, sort and distribute donations. After four days of collecting and two days of sorting, TCU donated:

• 365 lbs of food
• 260 large garbage bags of clothing, accessories and linen 
• 900 lbs of misc books 
• 225 lbs of text books 
• 8 boxes of glass vases 
• 15 boxes of electronics 
• 8 bags of toys and stuffed animals 
• 2 boxes of school supplies 
• 5 vacuums 
• 16 boxes of mirrors, shelving, baskets, plastic drawers
  

Everyone who participated was in awe of the abundance TCU had to share. The success of the program is due to the staff and faculty who volunteered time and muscle in the extremely warm weather and chaotic schedule that surrounds finals week. Residential Services and CISL are thankful for the widespread support that enabled their collaboration to be such a success. Next year, the committee hopes to recruit more TCU staff and faculty to join in. Information regarding “TCU Trash To Treasure 2008” will be distributed next April.