Student throwaways donated to charity

You're a Furman senior and graduation is just days away. With your final exams behind you, one daunting chore remains before you don your black gown and collect your degree: moving out.

Surveying your North Village apartment, you're amazed at the stuff you've accumulated during four years: a second-hand coffee table, an old lamp, a couch bequeathed to you last year by a departing senior, an obsolete computer and a well-worn recliner.

Obviously, you can't take it with you. Such furnishings, though perfectly fine in a college setting, would clash with your chic new apartment.

What to do?

Take it down to the parking lot and toss the stuff in a truck-sized dumpster?

Surely Furman has taught you better. But you don't have a truck to haul the furniture to the Salvation Army, and you don't have the time to wait around for a Goodwill truck.

This year, Furman's graduating seniors had some different options, as did other students leaving campus for the summer. As the students prepared to leave, six Greenville charities (Habitat for Humanity, Goodwill, the Democratic Women's League, Salvation Army, the Junior League and Miracle Hill Ministries) manned collection areas stationed around North Village to collect throwaways.

The effort, coordinated by Housing Director Boyd Yarbrough, Maintenance Supervisor Elcainey Baker and Community Relations Director Michelle Shain, helped benefit the poor and resulted in 50 percent less trash being taken to the landfill. Last year, 15, 30 cubic-yard dumpster loads of student throwaways were hauled to the landfill, compared with seven this May, says Baker.

The charities collected a variety of items, ranging from canned goods to televisions and sofas. "You would be surprised at some of the nice stuff that students decide not to take with them," says Yarbrough. "Students would rather donate the items than throw them away. Having a person on site representing a charity to help them was critical."

With 11 North Village apartment buildings, which house 1,020 residents, and 94 percent of Furman students living on campus, Yarbrough said the university "has reached the critical mass that now makes it worthwhile for the charities to operate on-campus collection points.".