Don’t Ditch It Donate It is the annual end of the year sustainability program hosted by Carolina Housing, Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling (OWRR), Carolina Thrift, Carolina Cupboard and TROSA Thrift Store to collect unwanted items. The goal of the program is to donate and reuse items, rather than adding to the local landfills. Clothes, shoes, futons, mirrors, storage bins, school supplies and so much more are donated by students who no longer need or want to take home at the end of the Spring Semester.
Debbie Bousquet, Carolina Housing’s Assistant Director of Facilities Management, coordinates the program and works with our campus partners to ensure we are collecting as many items as possible to donate. Mini-refrigerators are always a big ticket item that we look for during Don’t Ditch It Donate It. Typically, Debbie sets aside a few for Carolina Housing to use for conferences or students, but this year we had a some extra that we needed to rehome! And it just so happens that Ronald McDonald House Chapel Hill (RMHCH) was looking for some mini-refrigerators.
The Ronald McDonald House of Chapel Hill serves families from across the state of North Carolina, the U.S. and even foreign countries. Families staying at the House not only enjoy amenities like those found in their own home, but also the support of other families experiencing similar struggles. Because of COVID-19, RMHCH was required to close their shared kitchen space which had refrigerators for families to use. This necessary inconvenience sent Executive Director Heather Shanahan in search of some gently used mini-refrigerators to donate to the families staying with RMHCH. After reaching out to Granville Towers, Heather was directed to contact Debbie to see if there were any donations we were looking to rehome.
Thursday, June 17, RMHCH was able to pick-up 5 gently used mini-refrigerators to add to their family spaces. Carolina Housing is excited to connect with the Chapel Hill Community and donate to such a great cause. We would like to thank all of the students who did donate items this year. Not only were we able to keep a tractor trailer load of items out of the landfills, we were also able to help out the families at RMHCH. We hope to continue our partnership with RMHCH in future years to come.
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