{"id":8361,"date":"2016-03-14T13:48:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irnsurplus.com\/wp\/?p=8361"},"modified":"2024-02-26T20:15:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T01:15:39","slug":"school-desks-and-chairs-the-simplest-most-important-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/2016\/03\/14\/school-desks-and-chairs-the-simplest-most-important-resource\/","title":{"rendered":"School Desks and Chairs – The Simplest, Most Important Resource"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Before:<\/a>
A classroom in Jamaica. In some of our projects, IRN desks and chairs have replaced rocks and treestumps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Around the world, hundreds of millions of children are missing the most basic elements for an education:\u00a0 a desk and a chair.\u00a0 Here in America, thousands of charter and tribal schools, community centers, and other local groups need to find furnishings at the lowest possible cost.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, thousands of public schools in America replace old furniture every year.\u00a0 Almost all of it ends up getting thrown away.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 Why do these fundamental school resources, with worldwide demand, end up in landfills?<\/p>\n

There are two reasons:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no one to make the match.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 No school or district is set up to identify and reach out to the dozens or hundreds of organizations that might be able to use their furniture.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no one to manage the project.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Nor is any school or district set up to arrange and manage moving, loading, and transportation of truckloads of furniture, with all the associated paperwork and financial transactions.<\/p>\n

This is what IRN does.\u00a0 It\u2019s all that IRN does.\u00a0 Our only mission is to match used, usable furniture with schools and nonprofits that need it, and then manage the transfer.<\/p>\n

\"Loading<\/a>
Loading furniture, Wellesley (MA) High School. This project filled 21 trailers with furniture, which was provided to children in several Caribbean nations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since 2010 we\u2019ve filled 500 tractor trailers with student desks, chairs, and other furniture from 61 schools and districts from Maine to California.\u00a0 We\u2019ve matched these items with dozens of charter and tribal schools, furniture banks, community centers, and other nonprofits in the United States, and international charities working in 22 countries in the Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s about 90,000 pieces, more than four million\u00a0pounds of good, usable school furniture kept out of U.S. landfills, and provided where it is truly needed.<\/p>\n

What, exactly, do we do to make this happen?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been arranging reuse of surplus furnishings for 15 years.\u00a0 We have a network of hundreds of charter and other schools, relief and development agencies, furniture banks, and other nonprofits that can accept, redistribute, and assure the reuse of your furnishings.\u00a0 When you call us with an inventory, we identify the organization(s) most likely to need those particular furnishings.\u00a0 We reach out and work with them until the entire inventory is claimed.<\/p>\n

Then we set up and manage movers, we set up and manage transportation, we handle the paperwork, and we put a project manager onsite to assure that everything goes to plan.\u00a0 We provide documentation so you know exactly where each item of your old furniture has gone and who is using it.<\/p>\n

We make the match, and we manage the project.<\/p>\n

\"After:<\/a>
After: Furnishings from Tahanto Regional Middle\/High School (MA) unloaded and making a difference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a selection of photos showing furniture from IRN projects<\/a> installed, in use, and making a difference.<\/p>\n

The way we see it, we\u2019re helping American educators extend their mission and success, by providing basic resources to needy schoolchildren in the U.S. and worldwide.\u00a0 There\u2019s more need for these furnishings than we can ever supply.\u00a0 As they face huge social, environmental, diplomatic, health, and other challenges in the 21st<\/sup> Century, education is the most important resource we can provide to the next generation. \u00a0Our excess furnishings are an essential part of the equation.<\/p>\n

\"Donna<\/a><\/p>\n

Additional Information:<\/p>\n

Case Study, Wellesley (MA) High School<\/a><\/p>\n

Case Study, Tahanto Regional Middle\/High School (MA)<\/a><\/p>\n

Case Study, Jefferson County (CO) Public School District<\/a><\/p>\n

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’\/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’\/][contact-field label=’Telephone’ type=’text’\/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’\/][\/contact-form]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around the world, hundreds of millions of children are missing the most basic elements for an education:\u00a0 a desk and a chair.\u00a0 Here in America, thousands of charter and tribal schools, community centers, and other local groups need to find furnishings at the lowest possible cost. Meanwhile, thousands of public schools in America replace old … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “School Desks and Chairs – The Simplest, Most Important Resource”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recycling-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8361"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9821,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8361\/revisions\/9821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irnsurplus.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}