A mess of hangers, rugs, mini-fridges and hundreds of other items were left and filled the lobbies of Keene State College’s residential halls at the end of last semester. This year, though, the items were put to re-use and helped students save a few dollars at the Recycling On Campus at Keene State Move-In Sale on August 21st.
R.O.C.K.S. teamed up with Residential Life in order to conduct room sweeps last May, where they collected items residents did not bring home with them for the summer. Normally, R.O.C.K.S. supplies boxes in residential halls for students to discard unwanted products. With this year’s room sweeps, the group wound up with three times the amount they usually collect, according to Recycling Coordinator Heather Greenwood.
Melissa Dipalma/Contribute Photo: R.O.C.K.S. made more than $600, according to Heather Greenwood, Recycling Coordinator.
For Greenwood, the entire process started in January when she heard about the re-sale idea from various other colleges including University of New Hampshire. “The goal is to obviously encourage re-use,” she said, rather than buying brand new expensive products.
In order to sell these items, R.O.C.K.S. members like senior Alexandra Kirk had to test each electronic, do numerous loads of laundry and wash every other piece of merchandise. Food did not go to waste either, as it was donated to numerous places. After Residential Life paid for trailers to store the items over the summer, Kirk and her teammates relocated what was contained in the trailers to Morrison Hall where the sale was held.
Greenwood said the R.O.C.K.S. staff worked hard, leaving KSC later than usual in May and heading back earlier in August.
“People came back early and we crammed. There was one night where I actually worked until seven o’clock at night,” she said, after spending the day preparing for the sale. “It’s pretty much a miracle that we had those two trailers empty, unloaded and set up in two and a half days,” Greenwood said. She pointed out that many of the items that were tossed out by students were used for a mere six months and were in almost new condition.
Senior Joshua Borrun, R.O.C.K.S. member, said the purpose of the sale was, “to save the freshmen a lot of money so they don’t have to go out and spend twenty bucks for a new rug at Walmart, or a hundred [dollars] for a new fridge.” The highest priced items at the sale were mini-fridges, selling for five dollars. Most other items were priced at just a few cents or a quarter. According to Greenwood, there were at least 150 sales and the R.O.C.K.S. team made over $600 in total. “We probably had, at an absolute minimum, maybe between three [hundred] to five hundred people come in and out in that two hour [sale] time period,” she said.
Brian Cantore / Photo Editor: Alexandra Kirk piles leftover clothes from the sale into the truck bed for donation to Fast Friends Greyhound Rescue, the Humane Society and Mary’s Place. According to Recycling Coordinator, Heather Greenwood, many of the items are still in good condition.
The hallway of Morrison along with eight classrooms in the building were filled with goods; labeled into different sections to make it easier for shoppers to find what they were looking for.
“It was interesting to kind of watch what people wanted, and to watch what people didn’t want.
I really thought we’d get a lot more action in the clothing room,” said Greenwood.
“There was one point where the hallway of Morrison was flooded with people, and we were all kind of doubtful,” said Kirk when she explained she wasn’t sure what the turn out would be.
Kirk was thrilled with the feedback from students and families. Returning KSC pupils and resident assistants told her they wished they had had this type of sale on their move-in weekends in the past. Borrun said since this was their first year doing such a sale, some ideas about how to better run the event came up once it was over.
That being said, he believes next year will be much smoother should R.O.C.K.S. put on another sale. Greenwood called this the “trial year” of the sale, as she will look into what went well and what R.O.C.K.S. as a whole can change the next time around. Though two-thirds of the items were sold, there are still plenty of leftover items in good condition. These items will be divvied up and donated to various groups such as Fast Friends
Humane Society and Mary’s Place, which serves as housing for formally incarcerated women. “My goal is always to go to some place where it’s going to be given to the people,” Greenwood said. Borrun, Greenwood and Kirk agreed that there will be more move-in sales like this down the road.
“It was stressful,” Kirk said, “but we got it all done. It was worth it.” Greenwood was appreciative of the help she received from numerous departments on campus including the Morrison Hall faculty and Residential Life.
“There’s just so much collaboration across campus and I think that that’s one of the things that made it really, really successful,” she said, “the more projects that we can have on campus that do that, the better.”
Kirk said the sale took place not only to help parents and students save, but added that, “it’s also good, too, for the incoming freshmen to know that Keene State strives to be a green campus and we try to promote recycling and good environmental habits on campus.”
Brittany Ballantyne can be contacted at bballantyne@keene-equinox.com