From Hobbs Hall to Haiti

With the new residence halls being built on campus, Hobbs Hall is scheduled for demolition next month. Millersville’s purchasing department was given the task of finding a home for the student dorm room and lounge furniture.  The furniture was advertised for sale; however, there is currently a glut of used dormitory and office furniture on the market, and it did not sell.

Since the furniture has to be removed from Hobbs this month prior to demolition, the University found a solution in an organization named Food For The Poor, which according to its website is the largest international relief and development organization in the United States.

Millersville students helped load several 40-foot shipping containers bound for Haiti on Jan. 9-13.

“The students worked very hard and very fast, as we only had a two-hour window to load each container,” said John Cox, assistant director of purchasing. “Each of over two thousand pieces of furniture had to be hand-carried from each room to the rear of the shipping container and then physically lifted into the container because Hobbs Hall has no loading dock.”

The shipping containers, close to ten feet tall, had to be stacked with furniture to the ceiling. “Most of the student workers are wrestlers, which helped them provide the strength required to get all six containers fully loaded,” said Cox.

The Food For The Poor website can be found at http://www.foodforthepoor.org/about/.