Rather than throw away unwanted items at the end of the academic year, Saint Mary's hopes its students donate items to local charities through the Blue to New program, said Carrie Call, director of the Office for Civic and Social Engagement (OCSE).
"Students donate items in each hall — things they no longer want or don't want to take with them when they leave, and we divide the donation up for different charities," Call said.
Collections for Blue to New begin Friday and continue until May 17. Call said students should begin to think about which items to donate as soon as they start cleaning out their rooms.
"We do Blue to New because we needed a systematic way for the end-of-the-year donations to be organized and sorted to make sure that area agencies benefit as much as possible," Call said.
Call said OCSE is responsible for the project. Junior Jessica Robbins has been working on preparing for the program. Call said additional student workers will assist in collecting and sorting the donations.
Students can donate items at designated areas in each residence hall.
Call said the program will accept any unwanted items, including food, clothing, shoes, rugs, unbroken furniture, books, school supplies, glassware, dishes, lamps and functioning small appliances.
Though the program will accept a variety of items, Call asked students to refrain from dumping broken items or half-empty containers of food in the donation locations.
"We implore students to respect the donations and remember that the donations are going to charity," Call said.
Food, clothing, furniture and electronics will be donated to St. Vincent de Paul, Call said. Books will be collected for Better World Books, and school supplies will be distributed throughout local Title 1 partner schools.
"It's a very important project because it's one of the largest donation drives we do at the College and it provides great materials for a number of area agencies," she said.
In addition, Call said other items will also be donated to Navarre Middle School and the area food banks, as well as the Saint Mary's Free Store, located in the basement of Le Mans Hall.
Call said the program is in need of volunteers. Any students interested in volunteering should contact Call at ocse@saintmarys.edu
