CJ Day – Staff Writer
Donated furniture could help the UW Nordic Ski Team get to Lake Placid for its national tournament.
The team will be selling donated furniture and other household items Sept. 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the War Memorial Fieldhouse for its annual Trash 2 Treasures fundraiser.
Designed to raise money for travel expenses, the sale also gives these household items a new life. UW Nordic works with the UW Energy and Sustainability Club and the Clothing Cottage.
“Our main goal with this fundraiser is that we really enjoy that it reduces a lot of waste,” said UW Nordic President-Elect Madison Tinker. “We get comments like ‘Oh, we were just going to take that to the dump’, and so we give these items a second life.”
This year, UW Nordic has a bumper crop of donated goods. Tinker said the team filled three storage units, as well as their coaches’ garage, with donated furniture and other items. Highlights of this year’s haul include an antique bedstead with intricate carvings and a dumbwaiter system refurbished into a coffee table.
“We see a lot of strange things doing this,” said Tinker. “Of course we still have a bunch of the usual couches and tables for sale, too.”
Trash 2 Treasures has become something of a tradition among the UW Nordic team. The club has hosted the event for as long as Tinker can remember, and the fundraiser is a fixture of many of the students’ lives.
“A lot of the items we receive we get from people who are involved with the team in some way. A lot of parents give us items rather than sending stuff to the landfill.” said Tinker.
UW Nordic relies on the revenue generated by the fundraiser to cover their travel expenses. While most of their travel isn’t too far afield, as they compete mostly in Colorado, they sometimes travel to places a bit farther away. This year, they’re planning to make a trip to Lake Placid, New York for their national tournament, as well as to Utah and Montana to compete.
“I know that a lot of people don’t really know what Nordic skiing is,” said Tinker. “They might picture skiing, and picture downhill racing, but I like to say that Nordic skiers go both uphill and downhill.”
While their season doesn’t start for a few months, the team members make an effort to involve themselves with the community year-round. Trash 2 Treasure is just part of that effort.
This year, the sale includes early-bird specials for those who show up before 9 a.m., as well as a sliding pay scale based on the time of day. Anything still left by noon will be half off, and everything that doesn’t sell by 2 p.m. will be free to anyone who will take it.
