PUC’s Campus Safety Throws First Green Move-Out Initiative

From June 9-19, Pacific Union College Signal Security Site Supervisor Jennifer Schooley and the campus safety department organized a Green Move-Out for students to donate any items they no longer needed or couldn’t bring back home. From donation stations outside both the women's and men’s dormitories to Dauphinee Chapel and Brookside Park, donations piled up, including kitchenware, household appliances and furniture, blankets, school and cleaning supplies, sports equipment, and clothes, some with tags still attached.

For years, Schooley saw many items students no longer needed at the end of the school year go to landfills, when they would have been better off sent to a thrift store. As she thought about why there was no donation program yet organized on campus, Schooley remembered her mother telling her not to complain if there was a problem, but instead to be the solution. That is when she decided to take matters into her own hands.

While collecting donations outside Winning Hall, Schooley shared that a student’s father thanked her for organizing the Green Move-Out and expressed his frustration at seeing dorm appliances and clothes, all in great condition, being thrown out at the end of each school year.

“It was a wonderful experience to see the donations come in and know that, instead of heading to the landfill, they were going to make someone else’s life better,” said Schooley. “The first sizable donations showed up on the Newton Hall table, all folded and neat– I was so overwhelmed to see it. It was just the beginning, and it built from there.”

As countless more items were donated throughout the week, Schooley shared that by the third and fourth days, she and the campus safety team had to use multiple SUVs to move all the donations from their office to the Angwin Dorcas Thrift Store and Food Pantry, and she made sure everything transferred there was usable.

Schooley and the campus safety staff were impressed by how many students donated and plan to continue this initiative next school year, hoping to get students to help alongside them. The first-ever Green Move-Out at PUC was truly a success.