Give+Go results in significant donation

Students' unwanted goods offered to local, regional groups in need

Skidmore is donating more than 2,000 pieces of furniture, as well as students' unwanted items, over the course of a three-week period as a part of the College's annual Give+Go program. 

Each year as a part of the Give+Go, Skidmore puts collection bins around campus and asks students to donate unwanted clothing, furniture, and household items, which are then provided to local and regional groups in need. This year Skidmore is partnering with Goodwill of Greater NY and NJ to handle a large portion of the donations. The College is also working with B.E.S.T. (Backstretch Employee Service Team), which supports the workers at the Saratoga Race Course.

Students leave items in bins in their residence halls or the laundry rooms of their apartment building, and those items are then collected by volunteers and taken to outdoor collection bins provided by Goodwill. Sustainable Skidmore, the campus office that promotes and assesses sustainability, oversees this part of the collection. A large number of students left campus last weekend, resulting in a truckload of items donated to Goodwill and a vanload of items to B.E.S.T. "We have another week before the senior class moves out and we will continue to collect more items for these organizations. It is a great way to prevent hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of material from ending up in the landfill, as well as assisting people in our region," said Riley Neugebauer, Skidmore's sustainability coordinator.

In addition to the student donations, the College is also embarking on several renovation and construction projects once students leave campus. Currently under construction is new student housing to replace part of Scribner Village, an aging student apartment complex. As a result, half of Scribner Village will be demolished this summer. This part of the housing complex housed approximately 150 students, leaving a large quantity of useable furniture and appliances available for donation. In addition, the College is continuing its annual renewal of residence halls, an annual maintenance program, and also renovating several classrooms.The result is a significant amount of furniture that will no longer be needed at Skidmore.

The school worked successfully last year with New Hampshire-based Institutional Recycling Network (IRN), to donate classroom furniture that was no longer needed. Based on that experience, Skidmore chose to work with the organization again on the furniture donation this year.

IRN works in partnership with Skidmore to handle the logistics and removal of the furniture and identify agencies in need, both internationally and domestically, that can take the donated items. Currently IRN is working with an international group called Food for the Poor to donate a large portion of the furniture, which will likely end up in Jamaica. Skidmore also put IRN in touch with Care for New York State, an agency that is helping provide relief to those in Schoharie County who are still recovering from massive flooding in fall 2011. Care for New York State will receive the appliances and some furniture from both the residence hall renovation and the Scribner Village demolition project. Skidmore is also donating nearly 300 beds from the residence hall renovation and Scribner Village demolition to B.E.S.T., continuing a tradition in place for several years.

In total, Skidmore is donating over 2,000 pieces of furniture this year (beds, chairs, tables, dressers, desks, classroom furniture, etc.) and 68 appliances.