KEYS played a major part in making Georgetown University’s, student move-out drive more successful than ever this year. In a partnership with Jess Belue-Buckley of “Project Hilltop” – a sustainability-focused group in Georgetown’s residence life office – KEYS helped to find new homes for unwanted goods donated to Project Hilltop by students. Assisted by Anne Koestner and Jonathan Cohn of Georgetown, Jess Belue-Buckley of Project Hilltop began planning early in the year to find a way to reduce the tremendous waste generated by students discarding household items and school supplies that are too bulky or expensive to store or take home. Working with a group of Resident Advisors, Project Hilltop built up a network of 80 volunteers and created a system to maximize donations from across campus. Instead of ending up in the squadron of dumpsters arrayed across Georgetown’s leafy campus at move-out, a whopping 40 refrigerators, 10 TVs, 40 lamps, 30 boxes of small electronics, 85 pieces of furniture, 28 boxes of food, 56 boxes of household items, 72 large storage containers, 20 boxes of books, 38 boxes of school supplies, 73 bags of linen, and 280 bags of clothes were collected by the drive. On behalf of Community Family Life Services, New Endeavors by Women, New Expecations by Women, Interfaith Works, Pathways to Housing, DC, along with the Capital Area Food Bank, Charles Borromeo Church, and others, thank you HOYS for inviting us to participate in this Drive. As is typical with KEYS’ endeavors, the outcome carried not only a charitable benefit, but an environmental one, keeping goods in the hands of those who need them, not in landfills – satisfying the missions of both KEYS and Project Hilltop and promising future productive collaborations.


Evan Regan-Levine