When the doors open at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, May 29, for Penn State's third annual Trash to Treasure sale at Beaver Stadium, University Park, some of the early-bird shoppers will have been waiting since the night before.
"I heard there's going to be some people who are going to camp out the night before and tailgate," said to Al Matyasovsky, supervisor of central support services for the Office of Physical Plant.
The sale, coordinated by the Centre County Chapter of United Way and Penn State's Office of Physical Plant, is expected to feature about 80 tons of usable items donated by students and Penn State departments. Proceeds from the sale benefit United Way's 36 client agencies in Centre County. Last year, an estimated 11,000 bargain-hunters surged into Beaver Stadium. When the dust settled, the sale had raised $41,000.
The sale consists of items that students do not want or cannot transport home. The event's mission is threefold: prevent usable items from winding up in a landfill; save the University the cost of disposing of the material; and give students an opportunity to develop a sense of philanthropy.
"You can't get the kind of response we're getting without being aware of the volunteer/philanthropic mentality that our students are embracing," Matyasovsky said. "It's a parting gift to Penn State, the way I see it. Our students are reaching into their hearts and saying thank you to Penn State and to the community."
This year, the selection includes mountains of jeans, T-shirts, sweaters, shoes and athletic wear, as well as toys, stuffed animals, furniture, computers, televisions, videocassette recorders and other electronic equipment.
Further down the concourse at Beaver Stadium is a housewares section suitable for a department store. Small kitchen appliances, fans, lamps and dishes fill table after table. Lightbulbs are collected in laundry baskets. New and like-new irons, Dirt Devils, ironing boards, laundry hampers and storage containers fill another area. Pillows, sheets and towels in rainbow colors are arranged in tidy stacks. Comforters and sleeping bags are neatly rolled and secured with duct tape. About 30 of the back-support pillows that students call "husbands" were lined up underneath the tables. Connie Schroeder, communications director for United Way, said that at last count, volunteers had about 3,000 rugs to sort and roll.
The sale features quality merchandise. The lacrosse team has donated about 120 pairs of new Nike athletic shoes. Some of them have a retail value of about $255, according to Fraser Grigor, who chairs the University's Trash to Treasure committee. The Penn State Bookstore has donated several cartons of new, discontinued merchandise and a residence hall remodeling project will send shelving units to the sale.
"Here's a sale that started out from student donations and now there are departments saying 'here's a way we can help,'" Schroeder said.
In another area, Matyasovsky showed off the "Best Loot Boutique," a table of brand-new merchandise still bearing pricetags -- a $50 sweater, a $98 leather miniskirt, piles of women's tops and a Yankees warm-up jacket.
Much of the clothing has recognizable department store brand names, said Matyasovsky, as he picked up Gap, J.C. Penney, Old Navy, Aeropostle, Beverly Hills Polo Club, American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie and Fitch items and tossed them across the table. "I'm getting to be quite the haberdasher," he said.
Students also have donated some 6.25 tons of food that is distributed to area food banks.
"It's more Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese than you can shake a stick at," said Grigor, who is associate director of special projects in Housing and Food Services. Last year, students donated 6 tons of food that was valued at $18,000, Matyasovsky said.
Some of the odder items to turn up for the sale include the backseat out of a van and a brand-new car hood still in its cardboard casing.
This year's sale is the biggest organizers have seen so far, boasting three-quarters of a mile of bargains set up on some 300 tables along the Beaver Stadium concourse.
From 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m., customers pay $5 to get first-crack at the merchandise. Admission is free from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Because of the size of the sale, organizers will be selling maps for $1 to folks waiting in line to get in.
Shoppers enter the stadium at Gate B, select their purchases and proceed to Gate C where a centralized checkout area will be set up with multiple pay stations.
The sale has generated quite a bit of interest from other institutions. This year, three representatives of the University of Notre Dame will be on hand to observe the event with the intent to start a sale there.
For photos of the merchandise, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_05_18_trash_treasure/index.html and for information about volunteering to help at the sale, go to http://live.psu.edu/story/6940