Patrick Smythe
Contributing Writer
The lost and found in the resident halls were graveyards of forgotten items, until three women decided to take matters into their own hands.
Lauren Stemler, Sailor Moore and Maria Cohen serve as founders and coordinators of the Warrior Community Yard Sales, an initiative that collects items left behind at campus dormitories, student donated items such as clothing, bedding and electronics and sell them through yard sales held in the Spring and Fall to generate funds for the Warrior Food Pantry.
The sales are often held outside of the Science and Technology Center and are cash only. Many times, you can find big ticket items like microwaves, refrigerators, coffee machines and electronics. The Warrior Community Yard Sales takes unwanted items and turns it into cash to help students in need.
The first Warrior Community Yard Sale happened in 2018. Moore was a custodian on campus and when she started working in Residence Life at the end of June, she noticed all the items that had been thrown away in the dumpster after the students had left for the semester.
Moore thought about how to keep the stuff out of the landfills, and she approached Bob Moses, former Director of Residence Life, with a plan to get the custodians to set up a swap spot in exchange for buying a coffee break for them. Around this time there were a lot of committees forming around the “Go Green Initiatives” and as a result Moore met a lot of people with one of them being Cohen.
The women decided that if they were going to be able to collect things, they would need money to buy supplies such as storage pods, tents, wagons, and bags. At the time there were grant writing workshops and Cohen was able to secure a grant.
“They were hoping that with the first sale that they would be able to raise enough to support the following one,” said Cohen. “Sales had to be sustainable.”
The women decided that if the sales succeeded then they would donate funds to the Warrior Food Pantry where the now recently retired Moses had a large leadership role. Moore commented that “the need is really great there” and the numbers of students visiting the food pantry is increasing.
To prepare for their biggest sale in June, the group puts boxes in the resident halls and apartments during finals week so that students can put items in the boxes instead of throwing them out. This is also when the group collects most of the refrigerators and microwaves which are big ticket items at the sale.
Moore, as a custodian, has access to the resident halls and oversees cleaning and checking the microwaves and refrigerators.
However, not all the donations are sold. Some are held in reserve for students who are in need of supplies. Stemler also noted that the group was able to forgo buying a storage pod using Resident Life donated space for storage and sorting. The cost savings allowed the group to make a larger donation to the Food Pantry this year.
At the large June yard sale this year, the group raised $2,000. Additionally, pop up sales along with the sale of mini-fridges and microwaves netted the group an additional $900.
At their Fall sale on September 16th, they raised $860.60. All the sales this year, allowed the group to donate $3,700 to the Warrior Food Pantry, which is located at St. Matthew’s Church at 78 Ridgeway St. East Stroudsburg, PA. In addition to the monetary donations, the group also collects food items which it donates to the Food Pantry.
The Warrior Yard Sale organizers are hoping to build their relationships with student groups so if you are interested, please reach out to them. Finally, keep an eye out on the ESU Website for details on the Spring Sale and ways to help this group keep items out of the landfills and raise money for students in need.