In January we loaded residential furnishings for the Mass College of Liberal Arts in western Massachusetts, cafeteria tables and chairs in Millis, Massachusetts, and trailer-loads of high school desks for our frequent partner Washington Township Metropolitan School District in Indiana.
In February we traveled to a School Specialty warehouse in Cameron Texas, where with a crew from Olympia we packed fifteen trailers with 35,000 student chairs and some desks, which were dispersed to Mexico, Florida, California, Kenya, Timor-Leste, and Malawi.
In March we were in New Mexico with longtime partner Meteor Education for another elementary school, back in Massachusetts for more trailers of high school desks, and with Meteor Education again in Denver for a trailer of tables and chairs.
April took us to Michigan, as did May and June, for a total of more than a half-dozen cleanouts of elementary, middle, and high schools, most with our good friends KRS Moving Solutions, with furnishings provided to kids in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and other African countries, Turkey, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic – and some that stayed close to home in Michigan.
May started off slowly enough, in Massachusetts, where we had a crew from Olympia pack up a weight room from Massasoit Community College, to go to a rehab center in Maine. “Slowly” didn’t last. We handled dining tables and chairs for Connecticut College, residential furniture for Wellesley College outside of Boston, more tables and chairs for The University of Vermont, mattresses for Jamestown Mattress in Buffalo, an administrative and classroom building for University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth (with Leftfield Project Management and Sterling Movers), another cafeteria in Indianapolis, more mattresses for Liberty University in Virginia, and we kicked off a humongous residential project at Princeton University in New Jersey, alongside frequent partners Bohrens.
In June we carried on and wrapped up the residential furniture in New Jersey, packed up another elementary school with Meteor Education in New Mexico, flew back to Virginia for an elementary and a middle school (with Commonwealth School Equipment), returned to Denver for another six schools of tables and desks and chairs with Meteor Education, kept on packing in Michigan, and found a home for the entire Bryn Athyn Church School outside of Philadelphia
And June wasn’t over. On Monday June 23 we kicked off a six–school project for the Putnam City Schools near Oklahoma City, and we cleaned out for a Massachusetts state agency at the end of the week.
Put them all together, and in less than six months The Reuse Network has filled 110 trucks and trailers with more than 64,000 pieces, which have been sent to needy schools and communities in 14 countries and 15 American states.
We don’t do this because it’s fun (although it is). We do it because we can make a difference. A difference by keeping useful assets out of the trash. A difference by providing an example to American kids, that they can contribute to a sustainable economy. And most important, a difference to the thousands of kids and families whose lives are improved by the simple addition of a few pieces of decent furniture.
