Sorting Secondhand Stuff -- Sweet!

Today was a full day of RA training with the entire group of RAs (not just the ones that are brand new) and instead of peppering in generic icebreakers and name games all day, everyone went out and did some type of community service this morning. Okay, one staff stayed on campus to go through a shared storage space with old programming/bulletin board supplies, but everyone else went out into the larger community. Three staffs including my own went to St. Vincent de Paul, which could be described decently well as a locally run Goodwill.

There were a few students that helped at the dock unloading donations from cars, and a few others that arranged and priced fake flowers and wreaths, but the majority of us spent the morning sorting. Being in the Green Bay area and seeing that the store itself should have tipped me off, but I was surprised to see how large their warehouse is. Basically, the employees would wheel in crates (my completely guesstimate guess would be 3' x 5' x 3') that were filled to the brim with donations (each giant crate was lovingly labeled as "bric brac & misc." and we would sort the contents into other boxes & crates for around 50 different categories. There were some categories that seem pretty standard, like silverware/utensils, puzzles/games, and clothing (although I saw a surprisingly small number of clothing items throughout the morning). However, there were also big crates that would fill up with wicker baskets, candle holders (with a separate equally full crate for candles & wax), and canning jars.

I really should have kept track of how many crates we ended up sorting through, but we helped filter a lot of stuff. Here are some of my "discoveries":

- An electric typewriter built into a suitcase
- A box filled with ceramic bathroom tiles
- Men's & Women's Halloween pirate costumes
- A chihuahua calendar from around 2008

This is not counting the things the students were unearthing, including candles shaped like Roman emperors' heads, Beanie Babies, and a stack of cards for a grandmother with no writing on them.

I honestly had a fun time helping sort things and I was happy to hear later this afternoon that the RAs enjoyed the service as well. In fact, I posed the idea of planning future outings during the semester and they were definitely for it. As I said before, we could have just done icebreakers and name games, but doing service as staffs helps create that team mentality while also having fun. It is also nice to know that we're helping an organization that provides household goods, clothing, and furniture to those in need in the community.

One of the employees told us that when he started working at St. Vincent de Paul, there were around 1000 giant crates of bric brac sitting unsorted in the warehouse. By putting in long hours and with volunteers to help, they've been able to go down to 200-300 crates that are completely unsorted. It sounds like they have a steady influx of donations, so it's nice to think about being a part of that system. I honestly feel like I would want to go again to volunteer as well as simply see the selection on the sales floor.

Of course, I know that one morning of work isn't going to solve the world's problems, but it got me excited about volunteering again. I've volunteered with a number of organizations in the past, but I hadn't done anything here yet. Hopefully, I can get that set up, because I think that would be a blast.

Today was National Compliment Day, and I did try to give compliments to staff about today's training and to the students who were alongside me sorting items this morning. It was also National Peanut Butter Day, although I sadly didn't celebrate that as much.

DFTBA!