 Students can pick up all manners of useful items at the annual Big Sale, including furniture and kitchen supplies. Photo by Kate Johnson
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by ALYSSA BOYER
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
This summer, students saved 52.5 tons worth of couches, rugs, lamps, shower caddies and other dorm room essentials from entering a landfill, Kate A. Johnson, assistant director of Student Programs said.
“It is an incredibly green program from start to finish,” she said.
And the good deed does not end there.
This year’s BIG Sale rose over $13,500, most of which will be divided among four local non-profit organizations.
“We save stuff from
being thrown in the garbage, sell it back to the community and the
students at bargain prices and then all of the money from there goes to
local non-profits for energy efficiency,” Timothy S. Hefflinger, junior
sustainable development major and chair of the BIG Sale committee said.
Each of
the four non-profits has a unique plan for increasing energy efficiency
and will receive $2,600 to put their plans in motion.
Mountain
Alliance, a leadership development program for high school students,
plans to use the money to convert one of their school buses to run on
biodiesel.
The bus
will not only serve as a mode of transportation, but as a mobile
classroom, complete with solar panels and a portable wind turbine.
In order to fund the project, Mountain Alliance has entered its second of a four-year partnership with the BIG Sale.
Sugar Grove Developmental Day School is taking a different approach to saving energy.
Because
transporting food over long distances burns fossil fuels, they hope to
plant a vegetable garden to eliminate transportation.
The money they receive will go toward purchasing a composting bin, tools and a rainwater barrel.
The Children’s Playhouse will use their share to reduce heating and air conditioning use.
The
playhouse used credit to rebuild their basement windows and doors in
order to prevent snow and ice from developing during the winter
season.
The
Hunger and Health Coalition will assist with the BIG Sale’s effort to
decrease the amount of garbage in landfills by replacing their plastic
foam food containers with biodegradable containers.
Because the Hunger and Health Coalition gives thousands of meals each month, this is a significant change.
Due to the high cost of biodegradable containers, however, the funding will only pay for a few months’ worth.
An
additional $2,900 will go to the Leigh Lane Edwards Fund, which gives
scholarships to students who hope to study abroad through service
learning programs.
Since its creation by an Appalachian State University student in 2000, the BIG Sale has grown in size and profit.
The
success of this year’s BIG Sale allowed each non-profit that responded
to Hefflinger’s committee’s grant proposal to receive a share of the
earnings.
“Our committee went over them and we decided that every one of these was a worthwhile recipient of our money,” Hefflinger said.
Both Hefflinger and Johnson are excited about the steady growth of the BIG Sale and its impact on the community.
“We have
learned to recruit more and more volunteers each year to make the
project run more smoothly and we continue to increase our marketing
efforts both on-and-off campus,” Johnson said.
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