Columnist Leah Keiter encourages students to donate housing items to the Athens ReStore as move-out approaches.
My last column this year is an ode to my mom — the ultimate powerhouse of childhood memories. My family now lives in North Carolina, where my mom works at our local Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
Habitat for Humanity is an international nonprofit focused on bringing houses to families in need, largely through volunteer and staff builds in different parts of the world. Another way that Habitat contributes to its vision of “a world where everyone has a place to live” is through the proceeds generated in ReStores all around the country. Those ReStores are nonprofit home improvement centers that sell a wide variety of gently used home items, from appliances to furniture to plumbing fixtures, at a fraction of their retail cost. All proceeds from Habitat for Humanity ReStores go directly back into Habitat for Humanity and contributing to its overall goal of strengthening communities.
My room here in Athens is filled with lovingly refurbished ReStore furniture, including a semi-infamous huge armoire my mom bought and painted to match the rest of my room that had to be brought into my current house using a complicated system of ropes over the balcony because it was too big to fit up the stairs. As I’m struggling with the thought of how to get that huge thing out of my current house and into my apartment next year, my thoughts go to other Bobcats with furniture and other items they will no longer need as they graduate and move on out of Athens, and the perfect solution to that problem is our local ReStore.
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The way the ReStore works is that members of the community donate their gently used home items, which are then cleaned up and sold again. Items that the ReStore accepts include furniture, small and large appliances, building materials, windows, doors, lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures and bed frames or foot and headboards (but no mattresses).
Furniture should be gently used, and the only requirement for appliances is that they must be working. Those items can either be dropped off in person at the ReStore’s donation area, or students can call and easily schedule for the items to be picked up from their homes by ReStore employees and volunteers. The Athens ReStore does pickups Tuesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will take any of the large furniture items away so that you don’t have to deal with the hassle — a serious win-win!
The ReStore and Habitat for Humanity obviously hold a special place in my heart because of the connection my mom has to them and all of the good that I have seen both her and the nonprofit do in the time that she has been involved. As many Bobcats know, Athens is one of the poorest counties in Ohio, and a great way to give back before you say goodbye to your favorite brick streets (whether it’s for the summer or until homecoming next year) is donating instead of throwing those items away. The Athens ReStore is located at 309 W. Union St., and the number to call and schedule pick-ups or ask any other questions is 740-589-5865.
To round out this year, and this final column, I want to give a list of spots in Athens that are definitely worth checking out but didn’t get their own columns for some reason or another this year: the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway, the Ohio pawpaw Festival, the Rocky Boot and Shoe Outlet, any area in the Nelsonville Arts District and any of the many parks and outdoor spots in and around Athens. If you’re a Bobcat spending the summer in Athens, take the time to check those spots out — they won’t be crowded, and the experience will definitely be worth it!
Leah Keiter is a junior studying journalism. Do you have furniture you need to get rid of before summer? Email her at lk969912@ohio.edu.
