Two women’s watches, one pair of men’s soccer shoes, a Sudoku book, an assortment of car keys and mismatched gloves are just a few of the items that have resided in the Skutt Student Center’s lost and found.
Soon they will get a new home.
The Skutt Student Center Advisory Board has collected suitable lost and found items for a silent auction, which will take place Jan. 27-29 from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. by the Student Center fireplace. The final bids will end at 1 p.m Thursday.
All proceeds raised from the auction, as well as any unpurchased items, will be sent to the Dominican Republic through the Center for Service and Justice and the Institute for Latin American Concern spring programs.
“They [the Advisory Board] kicked around where the proceeds should go to, and the idea came forward that it should probably go to the Service and Justice office,” said Rowland Hughes, director of the Skutt and Harper Centers.
“The Dominican Republic program might be a neat place because not only could they take cash, but anything left over after the silent auction that maybe nobody bid on – they could go ahead and take the actual items to the Dominican Republic also.
“It was kind of a win-win situation for everybody. We got rid of our lost and found, we were conducting a public service, and everything was just hunky-dory.”
Arts & Sciences senior Sam Pierre is a CSU-appointed member of the Student Center Advisory Board who has been planning the auction since spring 2008.
“We realized that the items in the lost and found were accumulating and needed to find a way to alleviate that problem,” Pierre said.
“We on the Board decided that it would be a great opportunity to use the items to benefit those in need.
“We thought this auction would also be fun for students and provide a unique way for them to do some bargain hunting.”
All worthy items that have remained in the lost and found for more than two months will be auctioned.
Kelli Mutchler, administrative assistant at the Student Center, has been working on the details for the silent auction – finalizing the item inventory and evaluating their worth.
“I think there was a lunch box with food in it that we threw, and once or twice we had just a glove, but pretty much everything that fell within that over two-month policy we were able to put in.”
Hughes said one concern that came up during the planning process was what to do if someone came to the auction and wanted to claim an item as his or her own.
“What are we going to do? Are we going to force them to buy it? There is a potential dilemma there that really could become an issue,” Hughes said.
To try to alleviate the potential problem, an e-mail was sent over the Student News and Jaynet News listservs asking anyone who had lost something to check the lost and found and claim the item before the auction.
“I’ve just received a flood of e-mails, and unfortunately none of them have been things that we have, but we were hoping that would be one way we could maybe stem that situation from arising,” Mutchler said.
Other university departments have been invited to contribute their lost and found items to the auction as well. So far only the math department has donated to the auction.
“I have had several responses back from various departments saying that they like this idea and they’ll see what they can do. So hopefully this does take off as a campus-wide event,” Mutchler said.
“It’s amazing some of the things that people misplace or lose for whatever reason, so I can imagine if you compared the various departments you could have just a really wild bunch of things going up for auction.”
“We just think it’s really neat and a lot of fun, and we’re hoping the campus buys in,” Hughes said.