Hack and Pack Goes Green

Teach a boy to throw away, and he will believe there is an “away”.

Teach a boy to close the loop, and he will see his place in the cycle.

History Department Chair Tom Curley ’89

The boys in the five Eaglebrook dorms completed a monumental job of recycling clothing they had outgrown, electronics and bedding that they no longer needed, extra school supplies, lined filler paper, printer paper and used textbooks and books. And to think all this would have gone into the dumpster and off to a landfill?

Instead, the school continued its second year of coordinating an all out year-end recycling effort during our dorm packing days (hack and pack). The process began with Shappy LaPointe organizing the Third and Fourth Formers with assigned faculty to make creative, homemade recycled signage and distribute the over 60 boxes that Jeanne McCarthy collected for us over the last month. There were six boxes for each floor of each dorm that were collected over a three-day period before graduation by faculty members Colin Dudunake, Vinny Giambrocco, Yuan-Hsiu Lien, Shelley Dresser, and Shu-Chen Lin.

All the items were brought in to the ski room where Mr. Chris Lowe was in charge of organizing and separating. He brought over 15 bags of items down to Savages Market where they have a Planet Aid outside collection box. Mr. Lowe also brought over two truckloads to NELCWIT, the New England Learning Center for Women in Transition. This year Mr. Lowe also took a collection of random desk change that the boys found in the bottom of their cleaned out drawers. He was able to donate over $100 to NELCWIT.

Mr. Ed Bouquet brought two large bags of clothing and some bedding to the Jewish Family Services, run by the father of Jake Marmor ’09, an organization that helps aid resettled Africans in western Massachusetts.

It is amazing what has come out of this process. Many E & R Laundry items were pulled out of the waste stream, and Mr. Bouquet was then able to augment the list for boys who had missing blankets, sheets, or towels. Mr. Lowe’s “Bookstore” in the basement of Halsted has replenished its coffers thanks to the good work from his efforts. The math department alone has now over 100 used textbooks that came directly from this recycling effort. That represents over $7,ooo dollars in retail value, and that’s just the math books. Pens, pencils, and paper have been distributed throughout the dorms through the process, but Mr. Lowe will also bring up a box of the surplus to Greenfield High School.

All materials that were left after this distribution, including bags full of clothing, bedding, and boxes filled with shoes were loaded high in the back of a full sized pick up truck and brought to the Salvation Army in Greenfield, where they will be transferred to Springfield. Here, they will be washed, sorted and redistributed where necessary. Needless to say, what we brought them was needed and much appreciated.

This effort required a lot of unselfish hours by many people, especially Mr. Lowe, who could probably be found in the dumpster as we speak. Tough to believe that all this material would have been thrown away!

For more Sustainability news, please go to www.eaglebrook.org/sustainability

Teach a boy to throw away and the room will be clean today.

Teach a boy to reduce /reuse/recycle//rethink, and his world will be clean for his children.

History Department Chair Tom Curley ’89