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Date: 5/13/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW/LONGMEADOW – Families in East Longmeadow and Longmeadow are locked in a fierce competition to collect clothing and other textiles for the Hartsprings Foundation. No matter which town collects the most, the kids of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program will win.
The Hartsprings Foundation, founded in 1997, collects donations of textiles, such as clothing, linens, curtains, drapes, shoes, belts, hats and other small items and sells them through its partnership with Savers thrift stores. The money from those sales helps to fund the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring programs in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
This May, the foundation is working with the towns of East Longmeadow and Longmeadow in the hopes that a competitive spirit will boost collections for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County.
“The towns came to us because of a new law. All this stuff, all the textiles, aren’t going to be able to go into the waste stream,” Hartsprings Operation Manager David Parkinson, told Reminder Publishing. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has banned textiles from household trash beginning Nov. 1.
The Hartsprings Foundation website, https://hartsprings.org, explains that “regardless of condition, textiles can be recycled or reused if they are clean and dry.” Parkinson said that the foundation takes all textiles, except pillows and soiled items.
Each town has been tasked with collecting as many cloth-based pounds as possible. The town that wins will receive $500 for its Education Endowment Fund. A similar competition is being run between the neighboring towns of West Springfield and Agawam.
The competition aspect has boosted donations, Parkinson said. People dropping off textiles in East Longmeadow were telling him, “We have to beat Longmeadow,” Meanwhile, Hartsprings Foundation has put out flyers in Longmeadow that read, “Beat those East Longmeadow Spartans.”
The contest lasts throughout the month of May. The Hartsprings Foundation hosted a pick-up event on May 7, behind the Town Hall in East Longmeadow. The donations filled one box truck and roughly two-thirds of another.
Parkinson estimated there were about 8,000 pounds of textiles. The trucks will be at the Longmeadow Shops on May 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., to collect that town’s donations. There will also be curbside collections on May 17 in Longmeadow and May 24 in East Longmeadow. To schedule a free at-home pickup from Hartsprings, visit www.donatehartsprings.org or call 732-7111. A Hartsprings truck will be at every location and their driver will help remove donations from vehicles.
For more information on this event please visit https://www.facebook.com/HartspringsFoundation or email Parkinson at dparkinson@hartsprings.org.