Bill Jasman, a Trenton Rotarian, presented an interesting program that their Club uses called Walmart Returns, Repurposing for the Community. The basic idea is that the Club arranges to collect from the Trenton Walmart all the store's returns and then give these returns to their giving partners throughout the year. The club also has a relationship with Kohls for them to supply their employees as volunteer workers to help with the sorting and the Club gets $25.00 per worker as a Kohls charity donation.
The Club contacts its giving partners to pick up items such as animal shelters to receive food and pet supplies, the Veterans get bicycles and Christmas trees, clothing to women's shelters, and art supplies to children's groups.
Waivers must be signed by these organizations agreeing that the items received must not be sold and that the Club isn't responsible for any liability.
This is a HUGE project for the Trenton Club which is Michigan's third largest Rotary Club. Bill Jasman told us that to make this project work the Club needed 20 people plus a project chair. Two to three volunteers with vans or trucks to collect returns from Walmart and take these items to a large garage or storage room to be sorted. This has to be done every week. Every 2 to 3 weeks, the correct giving partner must be contacted to pick up their donation. This is a year-round commitment.
After the presentation, there was a lot of small group discussion about this between our members as they picked up the room and in the parking lot.
Susan Paluchniak
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