The University is encouraging all on-campus residents to donate unwanted but still reusable items to the Salvation Army and East Alabama Food Bank beginning tomorrow.
Check-out for Charity, which started about 15 years ago, is trying to capitalize on excess items left behind when students migrate home for summer.
"We're trying to keep as much as we can from going to the landfill, give it back into the community," said Amy Butler, administrative assistant for Auburn University House and Property Management. "Like at the end of August, when you see a lot of people leaving their apartments, you can drive around town and see a lot of perfectly good things going to the landfill, and that's what we are trying to prevent."
Butler said donations have increased during the last few years, perhaps because of America's increased green awareness.
Drop-off sites have been increased and streamlined to make donating easier and more convenient for departing students, Butler said.
"We're going to have a mobile attic located in the Quad and the Village," Butler said. "And Salvation Army is going to have its trucks in the Hill to be able to donate larger items."
Butler said donations to the Salvation Army benefit a whole broad spectrum of philanthropic enterprises.
"They help disaster relief and things like that," Butler said. "It's not just donating goods so they can make a profit. I hope that'll encourage everybody to donate."
Butler said this year those behind Check-out for Charity are stressing increased participation from students living in on-campus housing.
"We're trying to get students who don't want to take everything home at the end of the semester here at the resident halls at check-outs to donate to the Salvation Army or unopened food to the East Alabama Food Bank or other household products," Butler said. "It keeps it from going into the landfill."
The charity would like to include students and residents not living on campus, but, unfortunately, it's limited to dorm residents, Butler said.
Check-out for Charity officially begins tomorrow at 9 a.m. Donations can be dropped off at the Quad, Village and Hill.
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