Penn State Student United Way’s Trash to Treasure event beat its previous record, raising more than $5,000 for the Centre County United Way, co-coordinator of the event Fiona Chow said.
“It went really well,” Chow (sophomore-finance) said. “There were a lot of people who came.”
The club gathered donations of items such as clothes, televisions and kitchenware from students living in residence halls, Chow said. These items were then separated into three categories — clothing, electronics and household items — and placed in three different rooms for the sale, Chow said.
Penn State Student United Way is a branch of the United Way that does service activities on campus, co-president Julia Pronko said. It has a similar mission as the Centre County United Way, Pronko (junior-anthropology) said.
Student United Way works with all of the same partner agencies as Centre County United Way and the money raised at the Trash to Treasure event will go to Centre County United Way, co-president Chelsea Reynolds (sophomore-nutritional sciences) said.
Centre County United Way raises money to support 37 partner agencies in Centre County that deal with health and human services issues, communications coordinator for Centre County United Way Megan Evans said.
Some of the agencies that Centre County United Way funds include the AIDS Project, the American Red Cross and the Centre County Youth Service Bureau, Evans said.
United Way-funded programs touch one in three community members through the partner agencies, Evans said.
The volunteers working at the Trash to Treasure event were not only from the Student United Way, but also from the Centre County United Way, Chow said. They were dealing with making sales and showing people where things were, Chow said.
In order to sell the remaining items, there will be a bag sale on Tuesday from 5 to 7 p.m. in Fisher Hall, Reynolds said. Each bag will cost $5 and participants will be able to stuff the bag with as many items as they can fit into it, Chow said.
