Swap Donations
By Rachel Davidson
This week, the Santa Clara community will be celebrating its third annual Swap for Good, an event hosted around the country by various parties and organizations to collect donations for victims of domestic violence
Hosted by the Office of Sustainability, Santa Clara Community Action Program and the Retail Management Institute, the swap will allow students and staff to exchange clothes, tools, toys and other goods to benefit local community organizations that our campus currently supports.
Programs through SCCAP's Homelessness Department will be the primary benefactors of this event, including the women and children of Santa Clara and San Jose's Home Safe shelters.
Senior Michelle Tang, an intern at the Office of Sustainability, is responsible for bringing Swap for Good to Santa Clara when she was a sophomore and looking for different ways to educate students about sustainability.
Tang said that one of her favorite parts about the event was that it wasn't exclusive. Last year, some of the most frequent donators were employees at the Benson Memorial Center.
"We're doing really innovative stuff in terms of extending that invitation to our whole campus community," said Tang.
What makes Santa Clara's Swap for Good stand out is that our campus is one of the only colleges who hosts the event, which is usually sponsored by private parties or in people's homes.
"I want us to be a model for other college groups to do this type of thing," said Tang.
Beginning on April 17, students are able to drop off donations in bins located in the lobbies of each Residential Learning Community, at the SCCAP office, Campus Ministry, the Multicultural Center, and at the event table in Benson.
Student volunteers will pick up these boxes and organize the goods over the weekend until the Swap for Good "store" opens on April 22.
From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., students, faculty and community members may shop in the Benson Parlors and learn more about the need that they are serving.
Students and fellow organizatioThe swap comes just in time for spring cleaning, and serves as a great and innovative way for students to get rid of unnecessary belongings that will be difficult to move out of their dorms or homes come summer.
Contact Rachel Davidson at rldavidson@scu.edu.