GCU Student Move-Out Benefits Local Community through Partnership with Goodwill

Rewriting: Phoenix – As Grand Canyon University (GCU) students prepare to leave their accommodation for summer break, they will also be saying goodbye to items no longer required or too large to take back home. Goodwill has partnered with GCU over the past six to seven years as part of its student move-out program, allowing donations to be made easily on site while students load up cars and carts for departure. “As you’re bringing stuff and stuffing them in the cart, we’ve got the bins right here for Goodwill,” explains Lea Graham from Goodwill. The initiative aims to make it simple for departing GCU residents to donate items they no longer need or want to take back with them as they move across the country. “We have over 15,000 students on campus and we’re moving them out in just four days – around 4,000-5,000 per day,” says Steven Owens from GCU’s event coordination team. The scale of this operation means a diverse range of items is being donated each year to the charity, with anything and everything up for grabs including Chipotle signs, scooters, mini-fridges, sofas, among others that students simply cannot take home. “GCU has become our biggest campus site,” says Graham, highlighting how Goodwill works closely with a number of schools and universities across the region to facilitate donations for their programs which focus on career development, education, and training initiatives throughout local communities.