By Emmy Perkins, Staff Writer
The Donate to Educate Drive sponsored by Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina is an event held at local schools to help raise donations for Goodwill stores around the area. Schools from Forsyth County participate in the drive and the winning school is awarded with a $500 check plus five cents per every pound donated.
“RJR won the competition in 2008 and we’d love to do it again this year!” said Scottie House, Reynolds’ Advanced Placement Psychology teacher and Senior Girls Service Club sponsor.
The drive started March 17 and runs until Thursday, March 27. Donations can be brought to the Goodwill tractor trailer truck in the Reynolds parking lot just off Hawthorne Road in the mornings from 8 until 8:45 and in the afternoons from 3:45 until 4:30. On Saturday, March 22, SGSC will be accepting donations from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Members of the Senior Girls Service Club staff the truck to help people get their donations loaded onto the truck. The Goodwill drive is a major service project for the club and also provides some fun moments.
“If it’s warm, we sit and sunbathe,” senior SGSC president Catherine Macon said. “We play games to get to know the new members, especially on the Saturday shifts, because they’re longer.”
Nearly anything is accepted in the drive and everything will go to a good cause. Thousands of North Carolina residents live in some form of poverty, and secondhand shops make it a lot easier for citizens who live on a budget to get needed clothes and household supplies. Sometimes, though, the selection at Goodwill and other thrift stores can get sparse, which is why the Donate to Educate Drive can make a big difference in the community.
The coat a student donates could end up being someone’s saving grace on a cold night. The only thing that will be turned down are mattresses and box springs.
“(We’ve gotten things like) Foosball tables, TV’s, mattresses and couches in the past,” Macon said. “We (also) get underwear and bunches of clothes. Probably the majority of what we get is clothing.”
The Donate to Educate Drive is in its 12th year. At the end of the drive, schools’ donation trucks will be weighed and the school with the heaviest truck wins the prize.
“The heavier the better!” House said of items people in the Reynolds community can donate.
