By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Last year, two Baylor business students formed a nonprofit to collect dorm items during move-out and donate them to charities in need. Now after Bear-ly Used’s first year of operations, which donated over 13 storage pods worth of appliances, furniture and other goods, the team is back with bigger plans.
“We planned this out for eight months, and then we delivered last year,” Edmond, Okla., junior Josh Yoon said. “And this year we’re doing it again but also making it better and adding a lot more onto … what we did last year.”
Yoon and his co-founder, Austin senior Nolan La, started Bear-ly Used to find better homes for the items piling up in dumpsters during finals week.
“There were just a ton of things in these overfilled dumpsters that people could utilize that were just being thrown away,” Yoon said. “I wanted to create something around making that more sustainable and also giving back to the community because it’s all stuff that could be used again.”
The duo set a high bar last year. Alongside volunteers who put in over 100 hours, the team connected 11 nonprofits with lightly used goods. Organizations like Lovely Village, a community for survivors of sexual trauma and trafficking, are among the many groups that served their beneficiaries with donated goods from Bear-ly Used.
“Lovely Village received vacuums, brooms, cleaning supplies, laundry baskets, trash cans, an office chair, storage drawers (multiple sets), small appliances like coffee makers and an air fryer, as well as toilet paper, tissue boxes, trash bags, hand wipes and paper towels,” an email from Lovely Village to the Bear-ly Used team reads. “Most of these items will be used in our residential facility that will be opening next year, or given to women that we are currently serving.”
Other partner nonprofits included Green City Recycler, which received over 2,000 pounds of goods, and Education Service Center, which gave items to students, teachers and families — including fans for homes without air conditioning.
“Last year, we saw that multiple partners of ours really had a strong impact from the items,” La said. “They raised money with it, they gave it to women in need, all sorts of things. So that’s what keeps us motivated for this year.”
Encouraged by last year’s results, La and Yoon are stepping it up with increased marketing, a larger team and improved infrastructure. They brought on Houston senior Ethan Wiley and Katy freshman Allegra Alaniz to help keep the operation running after the founders graduate, and they also have help from Baylor’s Sustainability Office and Campus Living and Learning, which Yoon said will continue the program under the leadership of Sustainability Specialist for Operations and Engagement Dr. Sarah VerPloeg and Senior Director of Sustainability Gary Cocke
“We’re supported by a great team, which is Sarah and Gary,” La said of the Office of Sustainability department. “They give us a lot of support and flexibility on the work that we’re able to do and use our creativity.”
While Yoon and La elected to limit operations to Baylor’s 16 residence halls again this year, they hope to scale up in the coming years.
“How do we make this bigger so that we can collect as many items as possible and eventually hit the majority of everyone here at Baylor?” Yoon said. “That’s the end goal.”
For now, though, they’re focused on ironing out any kinks, like recruiting volunteers, which can be difficult because of finals. Yoon said to make the workload lighter for students, they’ve divided the shifts into one-hour increments and are also bringing their central sorting — previously at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative — closer to campus.
“If people can see [volunteering] as a study break, that’d be incredible,” Yoon said.
Students interested in volunteering can visit the Bear-ly Used website for more information. For students interested in donating their lightly used items, boxes will be available in the lobbies of each residence hall, with signage indicating which items can be donated.
