One person’s junk, as they say, is another’s treasure. Items that would be bound for the trash heap but instead were donated by departing students last summer raised more than $8,000 for the campus InterFaith Center and food and other resources for local organizations.
It is the 11th year for the Geneseo Gives Back program, in which students provide unwanted items that are collected in May as part of the college’s recycling efforts. The annual tag sale on move-in weekend sells the couches, pots and other living staples as low-cost options for incoming and returning students.
This year’s sale raised $8,091, which will be used for the InterFaith Center’s operating budget and its Raise the Roof fund, for roof repairs.
Unsold items were given to local nonprofit organizations, including:
- Nearly 2,000 pounds of food provided to the Geneseo/Groveland Food Pantry, Geneseo Parish Outreach Center, the Backpack Program and Teresa House hospice.
- Three bags of mattress pads and sleeping bags for the homeless (St. Paul Lutheran Church, Batavia)
- Egg crate pads for the Community Steel Drum band
- Nearly 70 pounds of toiletries for the Geneseo Parish Outreach Center