New student initiative offers green choices
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
(Stillwater, OK April 21, 2009) -- As the semester draws to a close and everyone clears out and goes home, one program will give Oklahoma State University students a sustainable choice. The Real Pokes Pass It On program encourages students to donate stuff they would normally throw out to be sold to incoming freshman in need of furniture or appliances.
The program was an idea submitted to the OSU Creativity Challenge by a team of three students, Cortney Timmons, Savannah Smith, and Jessica Lay.
“We had been talking about this idea for a few years,” Smith said. “The Creativity Challenge finally gave us a forum for our ideas.”
The students won the challenge and were then faced with the question of whether to implement the program this year or not.
“When we won we were already behind in the planning stage,” Smith said. “We thought
about starting the program next year, but we realized that we have to start somewhere
and decided to go for it.”
The planning has gone well for the students and they have enjoyed the support of OSU
staff and employees.
“When we won the Creativity Challenge, Fran Gragg, a Student Activities Officer with SGA Parent and Family Relations, told us that she had entered a very similar proposal to the Creativity initiative and that she would like to help us anyway she could,” Smith said.
Gragg became the organization’s faculty advisor and has helped the students coordinate the event.
Gragg is not the only OSU employee that is partly responsible for the success of this program. “Delton Gordon in the Res-Life office has been such a big help,” Smith said. “Without him we would not have a place to store any of the stuff we would be collecting and this program would not be possible.”
Gordon arranged for the Kerr-Drummond dining hall to serve as the drop off point and arranged for storage space in Kerr over the summer.
The drop off dates are April 23, April 27 and May 4, and students are encouraged to bring anything from clothing and food to kitchenware and furniture.
Whatever is left over after students have their pick in the fall will be donated to non-profit organizations in the Stillwater area Smith said.
“I am excited to see how this first year works out,” said Gragg. “It’s a good program all the way around, it helps people get rid of stuff, it saves other people money and it saves stuff from going to the landfill.”
Contact realcowboysrecycle@yahoo.com for more information about how to have items
picked up from your home and what to do with large items you wish to donate.