Summer Features 
Chuck it for Charity Enhances Lives
July 9, 2009 - The “
Chuck it for Charity” Program has been coordinating student donations with local charities for over a decade. U.Va. Sustainability organizes and publicizes the donation drive, is responsible for all drop-off sites, and facilitates collection by the charities, along with U.Va. Recycling. Items from on-Grounds students such as appliances, carpets, clothes, non-perishable foods, electronics, furniture, and more items are distributed to over ten charities each year, helping students give back to the local and international community through the charities.
This year, U.Va. Sustainability took the extra step to see what happens to students’ items after they leave the
residence areas in the hands of charity volunteers, and
see what these items are actually doing for the community. One of the area’s most recognized charities,
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, has participated in
Chuck it for Charity for years and they are proud of the good use they make of their donations.
Cynthia “CC” Cooper is happy to speak about Goodwill, because all she has to say is good. An employee through a partnering program for seniors, Cooper has been working at the Route 29 store for six months and loves every minute of it. She is disabled and had been unable to work before she came to the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), which matched her with the Goodwill job. While she had been looking for a different type of job, she was willing to try something new and was rewarded. “I got here and I fell in love with it!” Cooper said.
Cooper’s story of needing a job in a tough situation is an all-too-common story, according to Goodwill’s Marketing Manager Suni Heflin. Heflin says Goodwill’s mission to get people back into the work force is essential to their operations, and the money made from selling donations such as those from U.Va. helps them do just that. “The items sold in our stores help fund job training and, in effect, put people back to work. With the job market, layoffs, and industries changing so rapidly, every donation is more important to Goodwill than ever,” Heflin stated. In 2008, Goodwill Industries of the Valleys assisted 10,815 people through training and employment programs, placed 426 into competitive community employment, and helped 254 people no longer solely depend on public assistance. U.Va. student donations are vital in supporting their mission of helping people and families achieve a better life through work and independence in Charlottesville.
Cooper works three days a week hanging clothes to ready them for sale in the store, and witnessed the influx of donations when students were leaving at the end of the school year. She said “There was so much coming through the door, it was hard to keep up!” She noticed items from U.Va. that were barely used, even designer clothes, that she says helps families who are unable to afford such items at full price in department stores. Through donations from
Chuck it for Charity, Goodwill customers can access nicer items: “Oh they [customers] love it! Before you can get the rack through, they are coming at the door,” Cooper stated. She explains that the ability for Goodwill shoppers to be able to get quality items on a budget makes customers feel happy with their purchases and prouder to own such items, many of which come from U.Va. students’ surplus.
Goodwill shopper Gail Conner confirms Cooper’s story of customer satisfaction. Conner shops at Goodwill frequently for small furniture, and looks for items that are still in great shape, but are much less expensive than buying something new. Conner says it makes more sense to get a great deal with the economy the way it is.
Chuck it for Charity targets students living in residence areas, most of whom would not have cars to drive to a donation site. Cooper says that not just the students on-Grounds donate though – upper-class U.Va. students “come in here by the droves, crowds, one right behind the other.”
It is good to know that students remember
Chuck it for Charity from their first year in dorms and continue to donate throughout their upper-class years. The amount U.Va. students are diverting from landfills through donating must be astounding, as just on-Grounds donations through
Chuck it for Charity amounted to a conservative estimate of 13 tons of materials this year.
Regional Director Bonnie Cheney says that U.Va. benefits Goodwill not only through donations, but through the business they receive from the students “We have a lot of shoppers coming in from the school [U.Va.] too,” stating they come in looking for anything from regular home items to items for theme parties. “We can tell when they [the students] are gone for the summer.”
Reusing materials, diverting waste from landfills, saving money for the community, and stimulating the local economy exemplifies a full circle of sustainability. For more information on the University of Virginia’s
Chuck it for Charity Program or any other U.Va. Sustainability initiatives, contact , Sustainability Outreach Coordinator. For more information about Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, visit the
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys wesbsite or contact their Director of Marketing and Community Relations, .
