The Center for Community Involvement & Service-Learning and Housing & Residential Life are coordinating an annual "Trash to Treasure" effort to distribute food and gently used items, donated by students, to non-profit agencies. Because of the timing of the donation drive (May 4-10) and the enormity of the task, "Trash to Treasure" is not possible without the support of faculty and staff volunteers. "Trash to Treasure" ensures that items that can still be of use are not left behind or thrown away by our students as they vacate the residence halls.  Instead, donated items are distributed to community members who can put the items to good use. Students can drop off donations at residence halls around campus.

 

How can you get involved? Volunteer yourself or a small team from your department to pick up donations and/or sort items during finals week.  All “Pickup” shifts will collect items from residence hall lobbies and deliver them to the Rec Center.  All “Sort” shifts will sort items in the Rec Center to prepare them for pick up by non-profit agencies.    If you have a truck to lend, that is a plus! Sign up at www.involved.tcu.edu.

 

Available shifts:

Tuesday May 4 (3-5 p.m.) Collection Shift
Thursday May 6 (9:30-11a.m.) Sorting Shift
Thursday May 6 (3-5 p.m.) Collection Shift
Friday May 7 (9:30-11 a.m.) Sorting Shift
Friday May 7 (3-5p.m.) Collection Shift
Saturday May 8 (9 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) Collection, Sorting, and Lunch**
Monday May 10 (9-11 a.m.) Loading Shift
 

This year’s community beneficiaries include:
 
Catholic Charities: Catholic Charities provides social services in order to strengthen families, reduce infant mortality, resettle refugees, assist the elderly and disabled, and prevent child abuse. With a diverse range of programs, Catholic Charities assisted over 111,000 individuals, families and children in 2009, regardless of their faith traditions.
 
Tarrant Area Food Bank:  Serves 300 partner agencies in 13 counties. Donated food may be distributed to partner     
        agencies, sent to other food banks in the Texas Food Bank Network, or sent home with a child over the weekend.
 
SafeHaven/Berry Good Buys:  In addition to protecting victims and creating multiple opportunities to achieve independence and self-sufficiency, SHTC focuses on prevention by educating approximately 60,000 individuals annually. Berry Good Buys is a retail thrift store on West Berry that is operated by SafeHaven.
 
Books for Africa:  Works to end the book famine in Africa and to secure the educational future of a continent where 40% of children never go to school. Through a partnership with Better World Books, donated books will be sold with proceeds going toward sending books to Africa.
 
 
Please contact Mel Gruver at m.d.gruver@tcu.edu or ext. 5815 with any questions.