Calvin Students Donate Clothing, More As School Ends

May 19, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Calvin College students are leaving campus for the summer this week, but on their way out they're donating clothes, furniture and other items they don't want to lug home.

And for the 10th straight year those donations will benefit local children through the work of a local church, Oakdale Park Christian Reformed Church.

Calvin students are told at the end of the semester that anything they can't or don't want to take home can be donated to
the church. There are drop boxes for the students and everything is collected and left in the lobby of each residence hall.

After students have all moved out, Oakdale Park volunteers collect the goods in preparation for the church's annual yard sale. Those volunteers will be at Calvin on Thursday, May 20 beginning at 10:30 am to begin picking up the donations. The sale will be held June 23-25 this year.

Last year the church raised $4,000 says Lyn VandenBosch who helps run the sale and is the wife of the church's pastor. The money supports the church's neighborhood outreach to local children. John Witte, dean of residence life at Calvin, says it's a good situation for all the parties involved.

"We're doing it so we have an outlet for all this stuff," he says. "And they (the church) fill a need in their community by having this large yard sale."

The sale began in 1994 when the VandenBosch's daughter, Kristen, was a resident advisor in Calvin's Bolt-Heyns-Timmer residence hall.

Says Lyn VandenBosch: "Some of the girls on her floor said, 'Hey, we've got all this stuff, and we don't want to take it home. Do you have anyplace we can take this stuff * like a mission?' She said, 'Hey, why don't we do a yard sale and use the money for our children's ministry.'"

That first sale, held in the VandenBosch's front yard, raised $600 for the children's ministry.

Now the sale is held under a circus tent in the church's parking lot.

And Calvin's entire residence hall community (including students living in the college's apartments) furnish everything from couches to hair dryers for the sale. The Oakdale Park congregation also contributes. Most of the student donations are clothing items, and VandenBosch confesses that college kids make interesting contributions.

"The weirdest thing we got from Calvin," she says laughing, "was a whole bag of unmatched socks."

The bulk of the clothing is very welcome she adds quickly.

"I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say we sell a thousand pairs of jeans," she says.

Contact Lyn VandenBosch of Oakdale Park CRC at 245-5514

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Received on Wed May 19 15:27:33 2004