Posted: 05/02/07

Moving out for a good cause
Give a little something to St. Michael's SOFA

Erin Blair | contributing writer
eblair@smcvt.edu

As finals are approaching and the school year is ending, it’s almost time for students to start packing up their belongings and head home for the summer.

Somehow throughout the year, dorms have become much more crowded than in the fall when each student unloaded everything.

Those looking to relieve some of this burden they have gathered or are just those looking to contribute to a good cause can find relief in the Saving for Others Furniture Association (SOFA.)

Furniture is gathered on the lawn of the 300's field for later distribution and donations. (photo courtesy of SOFA)

Building SOFA

Four years ago, the idea to create an organization which takes donated dorm goods and sells them to incoming students, was established by students involved in their Peace and Justice first year seminar, SOFA coordinator, senior Anna Michael says.

When the group first started, the collection was created to donate things to the Salvation Army as part of the community service requirement in the class, junio Dierdre Kreckel of SOFA says.  They then began collecting items to donate to refugees in Africa largely through the Rotary Club.  SOFA has since changed the way they send aid to Africa in that they now do a "re-sale" at the beginning of the fall semester in order to raise money for the organization "Water for Sudan," “Last year we made a little over two thousand dollars for this organization.” Kreckel wrote in an e-mail interview.

“Waters for Sudan,” Michael says, “is run by one of the lost boys of Sudan , the money helps to build wells in the area.”

According to Michael, the students involved didn’t have all of the resources that were needed in the beginning, including the ability to store all of the things gathered. The whole process has gotten more complex each year she says.

To get the word out about their newly formed organization, members sent out fliers, talked to friends, got the word out via school newspapers, and sent out mass e-mails to students. Each year, Michael says, they gain more and more support.

Giving back

“We collect a lot of stuff; not only do students and some members of the community surrounding St. Michael's donate things at the end of the year, but we also do something we call "dumpster diving" to collect things people have thrown out rather than donated,” Kreckel says.

“As awareness has spread around campus about the collection, we have received a better and better turnout each year,” she says.

Last year, thousands of pounds of donations were given to SOFA, maxing out the tractor trailer truck designated to carry the goods. They were forced to toss out the donations given by seniors at the end of the week simply because there was no space available to store it.

“We opened the door, and stuff started falling out.” says Michael, “I thought ‘we are never going to sell all this stuff!’ but we ended up selling everything.”

According to Michael, it was mostly RA’s and freshman looking to buy used futons and other furniture. She says that they got about 15 futons because they are such a pain to move and people would rather just donate them then have to transport them all the way back home.

SOFA collects anything that can be found in a dorm room. Michael describes getting an abundance of plastic drawers, garbage cans, storage, shelving, TV’s, chairs, microwaves, and mini-fridges. “Basically anything that is too big to take home,” she says.

St. Michael's senior Tyler Gaudet says that he will be donating the couch in his townhouse after he graduates. “It’s cool that they are able to get more use out of the furniture.” Gaudet says, “I won’t be cleaning our couches, they are really clean anyway and never have been puked on or sprayed by a skunk.”

“Some of the items we get are really dirty,” Michael says. “But we do our best to clean everything up. It’s mostly for our own benefit, the nicer they look, the easier each item is to sell.”

Michael describes some of the donations that have been very strange in the past, receiving some sort of little house on the prairie costume, one of the volunteer members wore it around while helping others with their donations. Also, a stolen bench from the athletic field was donated one year, but then taken before it could be reported or sold.

“Unfortunately,” Michael says, “some things do get taken each year, but we do our best to keep an eye out, and try to get as many volunteers to help out as we can.”

SOFA’s future

Right now, SOFA is an organization that is solely run on the Saint Michael’s campus. Michael says that they have discussed opening up to the entire community, and have even gotten permission from Seven Days newspaper as well as the Burlington Free Press. “At this time, our organization does not have enough manpower to handle that amount of donations that we would receive.” Michael says. “We only have two tractor trailer beds.”

SOFA uses Uhaul vans to transport the furniture they collect off campus to distrubution centers. (photo courtesy of SOFA)

SOFA is currently looking for as many volunteers as possible to help out this year. Whether donating something or simply being there for the event to help move furniture and anything else that might need to be done. “Just being there to supervise would be great.” Michael says. The collection this year will be held between Joyce and Ryan Hall, and also on North Campus.

Anyone who wishes to help out in any way can sign up outside of the MOVE office. Sign up is also available to those who wish to help out in the reselling that will occur next fall.

Though SOFA has received nothing but great feedback, they are not in it to get recognition or praise, says Michael. Donating is an easy thing to do, and this is definitely benefiting a great cause.