by NIKKI ROBERTI
Lifestyles Reporter

Looking for a way to liven up your living space this year?

Instead of spending tons of money on residence halls or apartment accessories, students can buy everything they need on campus, and for inexpensive prices.

The Appalachian and the Community Together’s annual Big Sale will make someone’s trash another’s treasure.

Through ACT’s Don’t Throw It Away program, students collect donated items from residence halls at the end of the last academic year.

They often find themselves dumpster diving for other buried treasure to be salvaged.

The program then uses all the collected items in the beginning of the year for the Big Sale.

According to ACT, students can find anything from carpets and furniture to kitchenware and clothing.

Sophomore biology major Casey D. Conrad said he checked out the Big Sale last year as a freshman.

Although he did not buy anything himself, his roommate bought a rug they ended up using everyday throughout the year.

“There’s no  point in buying nice, new [stuff] for your room,” Conrad said. “It’s still just going to be a freshman dorm.”

The program helps out the environment too since it is intended to minimize waste by recycling usable items.

Jenny Koehn, head of ACT, said the program was started several years ago by a student, Natalie Knight.

“[She] saw all of the waste at the end of the year, and thought something productive could occur with it,” Koehn said.

However, saving money and the environment is not the only benefit from the sale.

According to Appalachian State’s Web site, “proceeds benefit four local non-profits to improve the energy efficiency of their facilities, as well as a fund to promote international service-learning.”

The Big Sale has raised over $35,000 for local community non-profit organizations in the past seven years, according to ACT’s Web site.

As Koehn described it, the program is a “classic win-win-win.”

The Big Sale will be held on August 23rd from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Legends.

There is limited parking at Legends, but additional parking can be found at Red Onion across the street until 10:30 am.

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