Early bird Campus Salvage shoppers get the worm
by Prufer
On an early Saturday morning in mid-May, several hundred bargain seekers lined up beside a horseshoe-shaped circle of PODS in the Atlantic Center area of Coastal Carolina University. Some had been there since midnight, equipped with folding chairs and coolers of snacks and drinks. These overnighters had developed a camaraderie akin to shoppers who camp outside stores for Black Friday bargains, driven by the shared desire for The Hunt.
It was Campus Salvage, the school’s annual collection of students’ unwanted possessions. As they clear out and head home, they leave behind all that stuff they couldn’t live without during the school year: mini-refrigerators, full-length mirrors, fans and lamps and shoes, lots of shoes. A giant stuffed teddy bear. Bikes and flatscreen TVs. A printer. Two plastic teal Adirondack chairs. Vacuum cleaners, coffee tables, shelves, lots of plastic drawers.
The offcasts are collected, sorted by Coastal Sustainability workers, and donated to area charities and shelters the week before the public sale.
The mission of the sale is to divert these items from the county’s landfills, help local charities and sell the remainder to raise money for sustainability scholarships. It is a win-win for everyone involved, especially the shoppers, who eagerly line up and wait for hours, paying the $5 early bird admission to get in at 7 a.m. and grab the best bargains. By 8 a.m. when entry is free, there is not much left to buy.
Most items are $1, with larger items going for a little more – $3 for a coffee table, $5 for an upright vacuum. One Myrtle Beach man who has never missed the sale during its five-year history, netted eight pairs of size 12 shoes, one corner hutch, one lamp table, a suitcase, two trash cans, a rug and more for a total bill of $25.
The sale raised $4,601 this year, money that helps pay for the program (renting the PODS and such) and fund a scholarship for students studying sustainability.
“This program continues to shine due to the generosity of Coastal students who make so many donations,” said Jeremy Monday, CCU’s sustainability coordinator. “We are so thankful for our partnership with University Housing and the wonderful job they do with marketing the program to our students.”
The Campus Salvage program is coordinated by the TD Campus and Community Sustainability Initiative, a department committed to transforming CCU into an environmentally sustainable university through student curriculum, learning and outreach programs, and projects on campus and in the community.
The department had set up 26 PODS at six collection points around campus in which students could place unwanted or unused items as they moved out of University Housing. For the sale, the 26 PODS were moved to the PODS company’s parking lot across U.S. 501 from main campus. At the last minute, the PODS folks gave CCU an extra POD for overflow items.
In addition to Monday, the collection, sorting and the sale itself were handled by four student workers, two volunteers and Monday’s brother.
In addition to raising money for the new scholarship, the collection efforts also resulted in donations to 15 different local organizations such as Fostering Hope, Ark Animal Hospital and Helping Hand.
Through Campus Salvage, the following donations were made:
• Ark Animal Hospital – mops, brooms and cleaning supplies
• Associated Charities – six large bags of clothes
• Churches Assisting People (CAP) in Conway – six boxes of nonperishable food
• Community Kitchen in Myrtle Beach – three boxes of paper goods
• Fostering Hope of Conway – eight bags of clothes
• Goodwill – 10 bags of clothes, 28 bags of bedding, six boxes of miscellaneous household items
• Horry County Animal Care Center – nine bags of towels and blankets
• Humane Society of North Myrtle Beach – brooms and cleaning supplies
• North Strand Housing Shelter – 25 bags of bedding, shower caddies, and six boxes of cleaning and paper products
• Salvation Army in Conway – 18 bags of clothing and 12 bags of bedding
• Sea Haven for Youth in Myrtle Beach – six bags of clothes
• Shepherd’s Table – three boxes of nonperishable food, paper products and bottled water
• Waccamaw Youth Center – one bag of clothes, one box of hygiene items and light bulbs
