According to senior Amanda Sabele, the former vice president of the Washington University in St. Louis Habitat for Humanity campus chapter, the group has won the grant one other time in recent memory, although it has been turned down for the grant the past couple of years.

State Farm will match every dollar that the University’s chapter raises, up to $5000.

According to Sabele, the group raised around $8000 last year. She says that this year is Habitat for Humanity St. Louis’ 10 year anniversary, and that the group hopes to increase the money it raises by at least 25 percent. She expects the grant will help the group meet that goal.

The organization has four main objectives: to build, educate, advocate and fundraise.

“I think it’s going to be great because with this grant we will be able to donate even more to Habitat for Humanity St. Louis. Every bit of money helps, and this is a lot of money,” former chapter president Justin Dollinger said.

The Washington University chapter of Habitat for Humanity has between 20 and 30 members and participates in around six builds each school year.

According to Sabele, the increased donation that the group will likely make will enable it to participate in more builds than before.

The group holds about six fundraisers annually. The two biggest are a trivia night in the fall and the Washington University Build Challenge in the spring.

Sabele, who completed the application process for the group, says that the decision was based on factors including the group’s fundraising efforts and the number of builds they attend.

To apply, the group had to fill out an online application and participate in a phone interview.

“The app process was so nerve-racking,” Sabele said. “It was insane, an hour long interview. [They asked] what we would use the money for, what our involvement on campus has been and about our fundraising and how effective we have been.”

Habitat for Humanity is an organization that aims to provide affordable housing for all people.

“Housing is such a difficult issue. Children under the age of 18 account for 40 percent of the homeless population worldwide, and it is our mission to offer stable housing worldwide. That extra money, $5000, is an incredible amount for us,” Sabele said.

Courtesy of Deepti Adlakha

Elementary school students work with senior lecturer Gay Lorberbaum as part of the Alberti Program, a problem-solving-focused workshop that introduces students to architectural design.

Few students at Washington University are children, but we depend on resources like the Writing Center and Student Financial Services. Unfortunately, children of the poorer St. Louis school districts lack access to an adequate education. The Alberti Program, the charity for this year’s Bauhaus, strives to provide economically underprivileged students with instruction in creative thinking and environmental sensitivity. Dozens of volunteers collaborate to frame a learning environment focused on the unique needs of students. The Alberti Program is no ordinary charity; it’s a labor of love.

The program’s plinth, Senior Lecturer Gay Lorberbaum, described Alberti’s history.

“Bruce Lindsey, dean of architecture, immediately launched the program after his arrival here five years ago. Dean Lindsey wanted to bring kids from the city here for free to learn about architecture and design. He asked me pretty quickly if I would take charge,” Lorberbaum said. Lindsey named the program for Leon Battista Alberti, a Renaissance architect.

Despite some initial hitches, both Lindsey and Lorberbaum were committed to Alberti’s success. “The Friday before the Monday we were going to start, I got a call from the superintendent [of the district we were helping] saying that instead of 20 children coming, we were only going to have seven,” Lorberbaum said. “That next day, Dean Lindsey was coming back from a trip to San Francisco for the University. I met him at the airport and told him what had happened. And he said ‘Gay, we’re going to start no matter what.’ And at that moment I knew that he was not initiating this program for any but the most honest reasons. He genuinely wants to help these kids.”

The plight of public schools has been the Alberti Program’s concern from its first blueprint. Lorberbaum noted some deficiencies in public education. “[There are] kids with asbestos poisoning or mothers on crack,” she said. “I’m not exaggerating. Public schools have less money in their budgets. There are all these kids who are really bright. I’ve never met a kid who isn’t bright. Never.”

“And I’ve worked with more kids than most people on this campus,” Lorberbaum continued. “I decided in the beginning to work with the Wellston School District. It’s one of the most in-need school districts given the level of income of the students.”

The Alberti Program has grown in the last five years to serve more districts.

“We have children coming from over nearly 25 schools. I’ve been slowly meeting principals and learning about more and more schools in the city. We have nearly a hundred in the program today,” Lorberbaum said. Participants meet on Saturdays during the school year and throughout June. In addition to Lorberbaum, students in the University’s College of Architecture serve as instructors for the children.

Lorberbaum sketches each session’s curriculum with great care. The day begins with a lecture from a local expert. “I’ll call on anyone in the University or the city, and everyone has always said yes,” she said. “As I develop the day’s curriculum, I decide whether I want an architect, an engineer, someone from biology.”

These lecturers have ranged from ecologists to social workers. “The lectures have 19 college students sitting in the audience, the Alberti instructors. Those lectures are geared for them. The lecturers are told to not dumb down, but for 40 minutes, you see a hundred kids attentive. That’s pretty incredible,” Lorberbaum said.

The students seem to revel in their projects. When I arrived, they were arched over in thought, designing structures that could support a team of underwater excavators. One of the instructors, sophomore Grant McCracken, remarked about the variety of approaches the students employed.

“It’s a diverse studio environment in which kids feed off each other,” he said. “They get at a new project with a lot of enthusiasm, which you see in the lecture. How they attack the project varies, but there’s so much enthusiasm.”

Alberti’s attention to each child’s needs allows for this enthusiasm. Lorberbaum stressed that every student has a unique learning style.

“The student-teacher ratios are so good; we can understand it is best for some children to go to the library first and read about a lot of examples. It’s better for the kinesthetic learners to start right away. There are seven or eight ways for starting off,” Lorberbaum said. “All the instructors are sensitive to how each of the kids begin.”

The Alberti program endorses lateral thinking—an indirect, creative approach to learning.

“[In lateral thinking] we first come up with a really important question that’s worth our time investigating and consider a number of variables and sub-questions. We study the question with a model, perhaps a literal 3D model, or a piece of writing. Then we either change the scale or the variables,” Lorberbaum said. “So I might look at how eyes read words, and then I might look at a full anatomical model of a eye. We have to in a few hours come up with an idea to answer that question.”

Testimony from the students suggests the program’s approach is successfully molding thinkers. Anastasia Roth, 13, commented that she liked trying to “build indoor/outdoor spaces so that you have a space that transitions from one to another.” Maya Jones, 12, spoke about “finding new ways to build old structures, especially ways to make them green. We need to stop polluting the environment.” Both students said the Alberti Program inspired them to learn more about design in future classes in high school. Maya said that the instructors “are very good at explaining things we don’t understand at first. They help us find new ways to solve the problems we’re facing.”

Despite its results, the Alberti Program needs continued support. The program has no budget; apart from space, the University provides nothing. Local businesses have been the pillars of the Alberti Program. Lorberbaum noted the frequent contributions of Artmart. “We only use recycled materials—we have no money—so I call Artmart once a week. They save all their matte board or any material they’re going to throw away.”

Bon Appétit used to provide lunches during the summer, thanks to Resident District Manager Nadeem Siddiqui, but a corporate decision shut down Siddiqui’s generosity. For the future, Lorberbaum hopes to help even more local children. “The press mostly writes about what’s wrong with schools. But there are bright kids with difficult lives. Alberti is an answer to that. As it is, it’s not fair; we have no bus money; it’s only for kids who can get here somehow,” she said.

Hopefully, they will. Maya certainly wants the Alberti Program to continue. “I’d be very mad [if Alberti stopped], because I want to someday become an architect,” she said.

Courtesy of Dave Spandorfer

A student sports a pair of shorts sold by Edele, a student business that sells running shorts. The business won a $15,000 prize in a competition.

A new business run by current University students, Edele, will be selling running shorts and donating a portion of their proceeds to charity. The business won a $15,000 prize in the Skandalaris Center’s YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition (SEIC) to get the business started.

The team of undergraduates performed well in the competition, which is typically dominated by graduates and community members. Edele won two of the seven prizes awarded this year.

According to Edele CEO Dave Spandorfer, a senior, it is the most money an undergraduate team has ever made in the competition.

Now the team hopes to use that money to effect a real international change.

The business will sell athletic shorts for $40—the same price that Nike sells its running shorts for, and $6 more than comparable shorts cost without the Nike logo. But rather than collecting the extra $6 cost as profit, the company plans to donate the money to organizations combating malnutrition in developing countries.

When Spandorfer and his friends on the cross-country team noticed that athletes pay $6 more for Nike shorts than non-name-brand shorts of similar quality, they came up with their business idea—to sell similar shorts and give the extra $6 to charity.

“Nike puts their money into athlete’s sponsorship and expensive marketing; our goal is to create a product where that money goes toward fighting something fundamental,” Spandorfer said.

Spandorfer said that tutoring underprivileged students from other countries gave the group an idea of how to specifically direct the funds.

“I had tutored refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, and got to know these people and their back stories,” Spandorfer said. “You have this idea of wanting to do good, this idea of helping all these people; and you feel so lucky as a runner to have access to clean water, and plenty of food. Being able to give back was really important to us.”

Beyond the company’s product, group members are working to ensure that the factory producing the shorts in Vietnam is socially conscious with its workers’ conditions.

“I think that it’s really clever,” said Ken Harrington, managing director of the Skandalaris Center and one of the competition’s judges. “It combines design, athletics, social consciousness—and it’s integrating it into this new blending of for-profit and not-for-profit thinking.”

According to Spandorfer, 97 stores in 27 states agreed to sell Edele’s product—including every running store in St. Louis. He noted that potential customers have responded positively as well.

“We asked 249 runners between the ages of 17 and 75, and 92 percent said they would be willing to pay more or would consider to pay more for a socially conscious product,” Spandorfer said. “And just from the people that we’ve talked to—we’ve been flabbergasted by the sort of response rate we’ve gotten.”

Spandorfer hopes that over time the company will expand beyond running shorts and into other sorts of running apparel.

Edele intends to use the $15,000 in grants to begin selling the shorts by February 2012.

PB & Joy, a new student-run food drive, will benefit Operation Food Search, a St. Louis organization that distributes free food to the hungry and poor.

The food drive also includes a competition among classes to donate the most food. In some donation locations, there are donation bins separated by year.

Former Student Union President Morgan DeBaun helped organize the competition. She said that the idea for the food drive came from the director of the Community Service Office, Stephanie Kurtzman.

“Stephanie Kurtzman decided that we should start a new University-wide tradition in which we annually raise money and get non-perishable food for Operation Food Search,” DeBaun said.

According to DeBaun, kids don’t always have access to as much food in the summer as they do during the rest of the year. She said that this is something that the University can do collectively to help the local community.

Planning for the week started in late January and early February as a collaboration between a number of student campus organizations.

DeBaun proposed the competition as a way to bring each class together.

“[It was the] easiest way to do it. We also felt that it tied into one of Student Union’s goals of creating more unity within the classes,” DeBaun said.

Students are notorious for having extra meal points toward the end of the school year.

According to DeBaun, students realize they have these extra meal points and put them toward the drive.

Freshman Maddie Parker said that it is better to use these extra meal points to buy food for the drive, rather than to buy unnecessary extras.

“I just think it’s really smart that they’re doing it at the end of the year because people have so many meal points. It’s better to spend their points on the homeless than on alcohol and Ibby’s,” Parker said.

According to DeBaun, Operation Food Search is looking for peanut butter and jelly in particular.

She said that students can buy it at campus markets and put it right in drop boxes.

The food drive started last Wednesday and will run until April 23.

Information on the location of drop boxes and on recommended foods can be found at: www.communityservice.wustl.edu/food.

With additional reporting by Haley Cen and Becky Prager

Courtesy of Yifan Meng

Styleta was started by Wash U junior Yifan Meng as a local chapter of a national nonprofit organization that focuses on selling designer clothing as a way to fund charities.

Yifan Meng is the current campus director of Styleta, a nationwide non-profit organization that sells designer clothes to benefit women’s initiatives. Meng, a biology major and Danforth Scholar, is helping to launch the group at Washington University this year.

“I don’t think there’s a student group on campus that combines service and fashion,” Meng said. “I think this is a creative idea to use business for charity.”

Styleta collects and sells designer clothing both on campus and online. The group’s efforts support women’s initiatives such as Dress for Success and Volunteers of America.

Styleta was founded by Yifan Zhang, a 2010 graduate of Harvard University and friend of Meng’s from high school. Zhang acts as the organization’s national CEO, while Meng is Washington University’s campus director. The organization currently has chapters at Harvard, New York University, Indiana University and Birmingham College.

“We are actually a very tightly-knit national group,” said Meng. “In five years, we hope to have over 50 college branches.”

On campus, the group has approximately 35 members who meet weekly to plan upcoming events and work toward being recognized by Student Union in order to receive funding. The executive board, headed by Meng, also works with Styleta members from the other university branches.

By the end of next month, Meng hopes to have hosted a clothing drive to collect designer items from students and community members on campus. The clothes will then be sorted for quality; some will be sent to local shelters and others will be sold online at www.styleta.com.

“There isn’t a market for charitable designer clothes,” said Meng, who also volunteers at the women’s shelter Lydia’s House. “I think it can be very successful on the Wash. U. campus, just because we are so service-oriented.”

The clothing drive will be followed by an event called Fashion Night Out, which will include a fashion show featuring donated items, a silent auction and a dance party to cap off the night. A final date has not yet been set, but Meng hopes to hold the event before Thanksgiving as a prelude to New York Fashion Week.

The fashion show will feature items collected in the clothing drive as well as limited edition pieces donated by a modeling agency in New York City

According to Meng, she and other members are trying to spread the word about Styleta by advertising in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and forming partnerships with local businesses

“We want it to be more than just a Wash. U. event,” she said. “Our goal is to be the Goodwill of stylish pieces. Mostly, I just want people to know [about it].”

As a senior, LaBoskey founded The Sunbeam Foundation, an organization that aims to spread hope and find cures for rare childhood bone cancers whose research is underfunded, as stated on the Sunbeam Foundation website.

“The aim is simple: to spread hope and search for cures for this devastating disease. We take pride in being an all volunteer, grassroots organization that gives all that we receive directly to the cause,” LaBoskey said.

To gain support for the organization, LaBoskey decided to use a passion that he and his sister had shared—soccer. As a four-year varsity soccer player during his time at Wash. U., LaBoskey motivated his teammates to get involved with the Sunbeam Foundation.

New generations of Bears have supported the foundation through soccer camps and encouraging donations at occasional games. This year, however, senior captain Alex Neumann decided to take fundraising one step further by creating the first WUSTL World Cup Charity Soccer Tournament.

This Saturday, Oct. 2, the varsity soccer team will play host to a five vs. five soccer tournament on Francis Field. After a week of tabling, the team is enthusiastic about the number of expected participants.

“The number of people signing up for the tournament is a great testimony to how willing students across this campus are to help a good cause,” junior Mac Chamberlin said.

True to its name, the tournament will follow a World Cup format, in which each of a maximum of 32 teams is guaranteed three matches, followed by elimination rounds for the top 16 teams. Though LaBoskey is now several years removed from Wash. U., he is excited to be involved with the school again and the soccer team in particular.

“Spirited events like the WUSTL World Cup allow us to provide seed grants for cutting research and launch new careers that are focused on these pediatric cancers,” LaBoskey said. “Wash. U. was a very special place for me. I played soccer all four years and gained a network of friends that will always be an important part of my life. It is very exciting to be involved with Wash. U. again with an event that embraces so many things that I love.”

Those still interested in signing up for the tournament or who would like to learn more about The Sunbeam Foundation can contact Neumann in the DUC throughout the day today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. as well as in Bear’s Den from 7 to 9 p.m.

“It’s important to know that this is not a hyper competitive tournament. It’s a tournament of all skill levels,” Neumann said. “I have a bunch of friends that have barely ever kicked a soccer ball before, but they’re doing it for the charity.”

The tournament will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday.

These events are impressive, and the accomplishments of two recent events demonstrate to us the capacity of our campus to help the community that surrounds it. Last Thursday, Kappa Kappa Gamma held Kappa Karaoke to benefit Lydia’s House, an organization that provides transitional housing for victims of domestic abuse. Then, on Friday night, the Linus Foundation held its semiannual benefit in St. Louis to support a variety of children’s charities. For $40-55, attendees were admitted to the Coronado Ballroom downtown for a benefit party with an open bar.

To date, the Linus Foundation has raised $106,000 through benefit parties for programs that educate and empower underprivileged children in multiple cities across the U.S. Kappa raised $1,700 on Thursday and donated more than 700 used books to children of the women of Lydia’s House. These numbers stand as a testament to the abilities of those who planned these events and a reminder that we, as students, are capable of truly helping the St. Louis community.

Both of these fundraisers have proved immensely popular among students: The Linus Foundation benefit has sold out every year in recent memory, and Kappa Karaoke filled the Gargoyle to capacity each year before moving to the DUC to fit more people for this year’s event. And let’s face it: Both Linus and Kappa Karaoke are a lot of fun, and that’s why we go. The same phenomenon is true of two other extremely successful events on campus: Mr. Wash. U. and Thurtene, and it’s true of most successful fundraisers outside of a college environment.

But while we commend those who work hard to attract students to these events, we feel that student participation in philanthropy shouldn’t end the morning after we attend the Linus Foundation benefit. Charitable fundraisers should serve as a beginning of active participation in philanthropy, not an end. For example, the Linus Foundation helps youth who are less privileged than we are; we can take its mission to heart and begin volunteering through Each One Teach One, Big Brothers Big Sisters or Out Of The Blue.

As a campus full of overachievers, we’re often told that we will soon be leaders in business, academia and politics. With this image of future leadership comes a responsibility to make our first steps into adulthood count, and to do so with active consideration. The money raised by philanthropic events at Wash. U. does fantastic things for our community. But participation in community service benefits those who volunteer in addition to those who receive their efforts. In order reap the benefits of the charity events that Wash. U. students work hard to organize, we need to consider their purposes and understand why we’re giving our money.

On Tuesday, about twenty athletes sacrificed a few hours of finals studying to go to the Build-A-Bear Workshop in the Galleria Mall, where they stuffed bears for the St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The event was organized by the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC). . Build-A-Bear Workshop donated the 50 bears athletes created and an additional 50 bears that had already been stuffed.

According to the athletes present, SAAC’s mission is to foster a tighter athletic community within Wash. U by making events for athletes to participate within the university and out. Stacey Niese, a senior co-captain on the women’s basketball team and a member of SAAC, said that one of the most important aspects of SAAC is “promoting sport to sport cohesion”.

As part of the teddy bear drive, SAAC completed an inter-sport competition to see which athletic team could donate the most amount of stuffed animal bears. The softball team succeeded by a large margin, obtaining over 100 bears, and will be receiving some sort of “surprise”, according to sophomore Emma Brown, a member of SAAC and the women’s soccer team.

(L-R) Freshmen Sondra Polonsky, Claire Downs, sophomore Corissa Santos and junior Claire Voris of the Washington University softball team rub hearts on their noses as they created bears for the St. Louis Children's Hospital. Athletes stuffed 50 bears on December 8 at the Build-A-Bear Workshop in the Galleria Mall. (Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life)

Isaac Stein, a member of the men’s tennis team and the SAAC executive board, was the lone male athlete at the event. “One of the biggest goals of SAAC is to promote interaction between the teams, “ Stein said. “You know your teammates well enough, but one of the goals is to encourage interaction between sports.”

Even though Stein was the only male athlete at the event, Build-A-Bear employee and Fontbonne junior Jessi Rowan said that he “did well” with the heart ceremony, which boys sometimes have trouble with.

The heart ceremony includes rubbing the heart on your forehead so the bear is “super smart like you”,  putting it on your cheek “for lots of smiles” and kissing the heart to “seal in your wish” inside the bear. These hearts are then placed inside the bear before they are stuffed.

(L-R) Sophomore Emma Brown, junior Julie Tembunkiart, freshman Emily Gosché and junior Katy Southworth of the Washington University women's soccer team rub hearts on their ears as they stuff bears bound for the St. Louis Children's Hospital. (Johann Qua Hiansen | Student Life)

The bear drive is a relatively new charity event, as it was just started two years ago. Junior Katy Southworth, who organized Tuesday’s event at Build-A-Bear and is a member of the women’s soccer team, appreciated the brief break from studying for finals. “It’s exciting to do something that’s not sports related with all of us athletes together,” Southworth said. “It’s fun to do it during exam week, cause then we have a de-stress moment that is helpful to everyone else, because all the bears are going to  [the] Children’s Hospital.”

Sophomore Liz Phillips, a member of the track and field and cross country teams, was able to take a break from studying to come down to the store.

“It’s really exciting, and it’s really great that Build-A-Bear has agreed to donate so many bears,” Phillips said. “[It's] a great opportunity for us to help out in the community and help the kids.”

Members from the women’s basketball, women’s tennis and softball teams were represented as well.  At one point during the stuffing, Santa Claus made an appearance making sure everyone there had been nice during the past year.

The drive opens up to the Wash. U. community this Saturday as Red Alert sponsors a half time shooting contest. Fans who bring any type of stuffed teddy bear to the men’s basketball game against No. 15 Augustana at 7 p.m. will be eligible to compete.  The No. 1 Wash. U. Men’s basketball team escaped with a 64-62 win over No. 8 Wheaton on Wednesday evening.

Several Washington University seniors started the Linus Foundation in 2002. Committed to the idea that “every child deserves a security blanket,” the foundation began planning events to benefit children’s charities. Seven years later, the foundation has spread and now has branches in nine cities.

This fall’s St. Louis event is called Fallin’ for Linus, and its proceeds will go to local foundations: Together We Can and Lydia’s House. Together We Can is a nonprofit company working to introduce higher standards in early child education, while Lydia’s House provides housing and support to abused women and their children. The party is being held at Neo on Locust, 2801 Locust Ave., and is open to anyone over 21 willing to buy a ticket. In the past the event has attracted around 600 people—alumni, undergraduates and graduate students, as well as anyone who has attended other Linus events.

What’s so great about this fundraiser? First off, it offers an open bar. To ensure safe travels to and from the event, buses will be running between Brookings and Neo all night. Second, it’s a chance to dress up and feel pretty; the event has a cocktail attire dress code. And last but not least, there will be live music and dancing. This year’s band is Boom, and Josh Dembling, a senior organizing the event, has promised that “they will bring the fire.”

But that doesn’t change the fact that a ticket costs $45 if you buy it before Friday and $50 at the door. While that may be an expensive price, just remember that it helps two great causes: charity and your social life.

“There’s no other way to put your money towards a great cause that helps women and their kids and at the same time have a great time,” said Molly Wyler, a senior member of the Linus Foundation.

While our pockets might not be very deep right now, neither are those of nonprofits. “Because of the recession, these charities are not getting any help,” senior committee member Eric Cohen said. The event raised between $2,000 and $4,000 in the past and, given current ticket sales, promises to be just as successful this year.

The four seniors and five juniors helping to plan the event also guarantee that the cost will be well worth it. “Anyone who’s been to the event says it’s one of their favorites of the semester,” senior Therese Fox said.

If you’re interested in attending Fallin’ for Linus, tickets will be on sale Tuesday and Thursday in the DUC or available online at http://www.linusfoundation.org/events.php. Raffle tickets can also be purchased for $2 at the DUC, online or at the event. Prizes include Blues tickets, restaurants gift certificates and even memorabilia autographed by Kings of Leon.

We all know you’re planning to go out Friday night. So instead of the typical frat party, why not go to Fallin’ for Linus and help out some local charities? That way, no matter how bad your hangover is the next morning, you won’t feel guilty about having had an awesome time.

(L-R) Zach Kelly, Ross Kelly and Mike Young gather donated items in the lobby of Wheeler House on the South 40 as a part of SWAP, a student-run non profit business. (Courtesy of The Office of Sustainability)

Fifteen to 20 desk chairs, 10 to 15 televisions, 40 to 50 desk lamps, 15 to 20 microwaves, a few living room sets, a large number of plastic bins and hangers. This names only a few on the long list of items Sharing With A Purpose collected from Washington University dorms and apartments after move-out this past semester.

Better known as SWAP, the program collects and donates to charity any unwanted reusable items University students leave for trash. The newly established student-owned business has been a member of the Student Entrepreneurial Program since fall 2008 and received non-profit status from Missouri in February 2009.

Seniors Michael Young and Ross Kelley, two of SWAP’s six co-founders and owners, had no idea the group would meet so much initial success.

“We knew a lot of Wash. U. students were concerned about campus sustainability, but we did not expect the response to SWAP to be so positive in only its first year,” Kelley said.

SWAP, however, is certainly not the campus’s only student-run program with conservation and charity in mind. Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity’s furniture drive, which accepts all non-electronic appliances to donate to the St. Louis-based food bank Operation Food Search, has operated since spring 2002.

Senior Adam Yasinow, president of TKE, said the fraternity’s annual drive has remained successful throughout the years. Yasinow could not provide this year’s final collection number as the drive was still ongoing as of June.

The furniture drive and SWAP make up two of the largest contributors to the Share Our Stuff (S.O.S.) program in the Office of Sustainability at the University. Launched in 2008 under the leadership of Matt Malten, assistant vice chancellor for campus sustainability, S.O.S. seeks to reduce the amount of waste generated each year on campus.

TKE joined S.O.S. after it “ saw a marriage of interests” in the relationship, Yasinow said. SWAP owners also recognized the common ground and saw potential for raising its own publicity with the partnership.

“I cannot stress enough what a tremendous asset our relationship with the S.O.S. campaign and the Office of Sustainability has been, and we only look for further build upon this relationship,” Young said.

SWAP’s main beneficiary is Lydia’s House, a local organization that provides transitional housing for domestic violence survivors. After holding an on-campus sale of its items in late August, SWAP will send the proceeds to Lydia’s House and donate all unsold items to Operation Food Search.

“Our items go back to the Wash. U. community while [other groups] donate their items to outside organizations,” Young said.

Despite the ongoing work of such programs in past years, some students say that the efforts are not well publicized.

2007 alumnus Nicholas Gregg, who currently works for the School of Medicine, said he had never heard of TKE’s furniture drive during his undergraduate years at the University.

“Senior year, when we were moving out of our off-campus house, we did not know of such student groups. So we just left the items [in] the back alleyway, which someone did come and pick it up,” Gregg said.

Sophomore Dan Bernard claims to have heard very little about SWAP this year.

“It sounds good, but the groups need to give out more information and publicize better,” he said.

Bernard and Gregg also said the two groups could end up competing, since both have similar functions.

“It sounds like both organizations target the same group of people and do similar things—why two organizations?” Bernard said, echoed by Gregg’s suggestion that the programs would fare better if they combined their efforts.

The organizers behind the furniture drive and SWAP, however, said they found the relationship with each other and with S.O.S. mutually beneficial.

“We have been able to bounce ideas off of each other to help make the program more successful, and we have been able to share resources,” Young said.

Yasinow believes the cooperation also lets the programs pursue an overall agenda to “actively promote campus sustainability.”

With ever increasing public attention to the need for a sustainable future, the organizers expressed optimism about the success and impact of their efforts.

“Next year, we look to strengthen and continue our relationship with the S.O.S. drive. We have a strong relationship with Operation Food Search and look to continue our philanthropic cause,” Yasinow said.

SWAP expects an even more successful drive next year, Young said.

“As this was our first year, there is plenty of room for improvement and efficiency on our end. We hope to achieve our current goals at a higher level—promote our campus’s sustainability while benefiting a local charity.”

SWAP will host its sale on the South 40 on Aug. 21-22 and in the Village on Aug. 23-24.