Local schools, nonprofits share $12,000 from Clean Sweep sale

The fifth annual Clean Sweep, the Bates College “garage sale” of furnishings and other goods donated by departing students, generated $12,222 in proceeds that were divided among a variety of local schools and nonprofit organizations.

Sharing the proceeds and providing volunteers to staff the sale were eight nonprofits and programs at two high schools. The beneficiaries in Lewiston were: Androscoggin Head Start and Child Care; Hilltop Community Gardens; the Lewiston High School track team; the Maine People’s Alliance; New Beginnings; the Pierce Street Resource Center; and the Serenity Garden Club. Auburn recipients were the ninth- and 11th-grade classes of Edward Little High School and the school department’s SHAREcenter program. The 10th recipient was the Maine Center for Justice, Ecology and Democracy in Greene.

The sale took place Saturday, June 18, at the college’s Underhill Arena. Bates is one of a number of colleges and universities nationwide that benefit both local nonprofit organizations and the environment by selling useful possessions that are donated by students — and thus kept out of the waste stream — as they head out at the end of the academic year.