Student Trash Powers Fundraiser

One undergrad’s junk may be a North Baltimore resident’s treasure.

On Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center, Johns Hopkins University is scheduled to hold its second annual JH-U-Turn event. The event works like a flea market, where items students can’t take home are donated and sold to the public.

Funds raised from the event will be donated to the United Way of Central Maryland and the Johns Hopkins Neighborhood Fund.

Last year’s JH-U-Turn sale raised $5,800 for the neighborhood fund.

“We did great last year. We had people lined up at 8 a.m., which was impressive to me,” the program’s creator Carrie Bennett said.

Bennett, the university’s community liaison, said the idea for the event came from residents and students asking about the fate of items that are thrown out while students were moving. 

Bennett said she started looking at various programs universities had implemented to help recycle and reuse what students couldn't take home for the summer.

She said she discovered a program at Dickinson College that she modeled the Hopkins program after.  She said Dickinson’s program has become so big that it has to be held in an auditorium at the Carlisle, PA fairgrounds.

“It’s huge. You could fly a small corporate jet through that thing,” Bennett said.

During the month of May, Hopkins has collected more than two tractor-trailers full of donations.