10-Day Give asks students to rethink trash

By Lindsey Carter – Horizon News and Features Editor

With only two more weeks of school, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to get all of the stuff you accumulated back home. But who wants to try to cram a bunch of unnecessary junk in their suitcases?

If you have extra things that you no longer need such as food, unworn clothes, room decor or notebooks, put them in your mod’s free boxes. Starting on Wednesday, 10-Day Give volunteers will make sure your items are responsibly discarded.

The 10-Day Give was created last year with the idea of decreasing the amount of usable items being thrown in the Dumpsters at the end of the school year. Prior to the 10-Day Give, Hesston College would fill six large Dumpsters to the point of overflow at the end of each year. But in May 2011, the 10-Day Give helped to cut the amount of end-of-the-year trash in half.

“Last year we were able to make a significant dent in our trash accumulation at the end of the year,” said 10-Day Give volunteer Kendra Burkey. “We’re hoping to do the same thing this year.”

So where do you take these unwanted items? Donation bins will be placed in each mod ten days before the last day of finals. At the end of each day, student volunteers will dump the bins from each mod into a larger bin located in the basement of Erb Hall.

At the end of the event, all of the collected items will go to the Free Grace Place, a Hesston based resource center. Free Grace will accept any good quality used items collected through the 10-Day Give. But according to Rita Peters, Free Grace volunteer, their service goes beyond the tangible.

“Free Grace is a service in which we can show the love of Jesus in a practical way,” Peters said. “Sometimes that need is for the physical items, sometimes the need is for someone to simply care about them as an individual.”

Free Grace will take lofts, beds, clothing, room decor, and more. Electronics will be donated to local recycling centers. Any clothes that don’t pass the quality test should still be donated. They’ll go to Mennonite Central Committee, where they will be baled and shipped internationally for use as insulation in homes.

Want to volunteer? Students, faculty, and staff can contact Karen LeVan to sign up for daily 10-Day Give shifts to help sort and pack the items.