The Great Donate occurred on Thursday, January 19th, and was attended by 350 students over the course of the afternoon.
The SU-led initiative, which seeks to reduce waste going to landfill from students moving out of residences, and necessary products to students moving in the following semester, has seen its greatest turn out to date, with students queuing almost the length of the path from Glenomena laundry to the campus ring road.
Speaking to the University Observer following the event, Campaigns and Engagement Officer Robyn O’Keeffe, said “We had an extremely successful Great Donate, both with the collection and distribution of the items. The Great Donate is continuing to grow year by year, semester by semester [...] We had about 350 students turn up yesterday, and all the items we collected in December are now gone.”
She went on to praise the students who partook in the collection at the end of December, saying “The Great Donate is only as strong as those that contribute, and so it is very much down to the students that have been donating at the end of each semester [...] Because most of the students that were there yesterday are only here for one semester, and the majority of them were international students, we expect that all of the items that have been rehomed for this semester will return back to us again in May, and then will continue to be redistributed again in September.”
“The Great Donate is a wonderful initiative, and we have saved thousands, and we continue to save thousands and thousands from going to landfill, and reducing costs for students each year. [It] just highlights the need that students have for this. We’re hearing that most students cannot afford to buy just what they need after they come here, just for a single semester, because they’re already paying their fees and accommodation on top of that.”