Thank you to all who have donated items to Operation Wildcat.  We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our community.  Please keep in mind that we are just volunteers, busy parents just like you.  We would appreciate if you would follow the below guidelines, as this will make our volunteers’ lives a lot easier.  If items aren't clearly labeled they will be disposed of.  If items don't meet our criteria, they will be disposed of.  If you have a large donation, please contact the appropriate project chair to arrange for delivery, and so that we can provide a donation receipt.

We are truly grateful for all the wonderful items that have been donated to Operation Wildcat.  These items have allowed us to help many, many families in our school district.   Some of our volunteers have offered their homes/porches as drop-off sites for clothing, house wares and yard sale items.  We DO NOT accept the following items at any of the homes: computers, TVs, or furniture.   We will accept furniture donations but only if prior arrangements are made.  Please do not “dump and run” these items.   Large pieces of furniture are stored in units at Storage Depot.  All furniture items dropped off at the volunteers home will have to be moved to the storage unit, a move that could have been avoided if arrangements had been made to meet at the Storage Unit.

Back to School Items

• We can only accept NEW back to school items and personal hygiene items. Any used items will be thrown out.
• Exception: we can take used calculators.
• These items can be left in the Operation Wildcat bins at any time.
• If you have a large donation of back to school items, please contact the   project chairs (Leslie Collins, 795-7372, mommagic@comcast.net or  Deborah Aquino, 766-5426, avictoriousone@yahoo.com) in advance to  arrange for delivery.  We will also be able to provide you with a donation receipt if you contact us in advance and provide us with the list of donated items/
• While we appreciate all donations, the items that we need are listed on the website.  If the item is not listed, that means we either have a large quantity of those items or don’t need those items.  If you have questions about whether we need an item, please contact Leslie or Deborah.

Bikes

• We can only accept bikes in reasonable working condition.
• Do not donate bikes that are so old that a child won’t ride it.
• Please contact the project chair (Joann Davis, 497-8791, Jwd715@verizon.net)  to arrange for donation of any bikes.  Do not leave bikes at her house, or any other committee member’s house without first contacting them
• Any bikes that don't meet our criteria can be donated to Recycle Bicycle of Harrisburg.  For more details go to http://marchforjesususa.com/recyclebike/index.htm

Books

• We accept new or gently used books
• Books can be left in the Operation Wildcat bins at any time. 
• If you have a large donation of books, please contact the project chairs (Kim Dubas, 697-3332, kzdubas@verizon.net and Danette Swartley, danetteswartley@yahoo.com) in advance to arrange delivery.

Clothing

• We only accept new or gently used clothing items.
• We cannot accept any items with stains or tears.
• Please check the website for list of items we are currently accepting.
• All bags of clothing must be sorted by sex/size and labeled with a marker (v. notes of papers that can get ripped off) accordingly.   The time if takes for you to sort your donated items will save our volunteers loads of hours.  The quicker we can get items into bins, the quicker the items can go out to students who need them.
• If you have large donations of clothing, please contact the project chair (Theresa Day, tday@messiah.edu) to arrange for drop off.

Furniture

• We only accept new or gently used furniture
• We cannot accept any items are broken, stained or torn.
• If you are donating sheets, comforters and blankets, please label the bag, with a marker, with the size being donated, i.e. Twin, Full, etc. 
• Please refer to our website for items that we are currently accepting.  If you have any furniture/household items to donate that are not on this list, please contact the project chairs (Pat Clawges, 796-3688 pclawges@comcast.net Maureen Ross, 773-1988, Mmross4@comcast.net) to see if there is a current need for the item or if we have room in our storage unit to store the item.
• PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE ANY FURNITURE ITEMS at volunteers' homes or at school buildings.  If you have furniture to donate, and are able to transport it, please call Pat Clawges at 512-4164 (pclawges@comcast.net) or Maureen Ross at 773-1988 (mmross4@comcast.net) to make delivery/drop-off arrangements. 

Yard Sale 

• Since we will not be participating in any yard sales until next spring, and our storage units for yard sale items are not heated, we will not be accepting any yard sale donations from November 15th through February 15th, 2011.  We appreciate your understanding and cooperation
• We are only accepting items in good to very good condition
• Please refer to our website for items that we are currently accepting.  If you have yard sale items to donate that are not on this list, please contact the project chairs (Pat Clawges, 796-3688 pclawges@comcast.net Maureen Ross, 773-1988, Mmross4@comcast.net) to see if there is a current need for the item or if we have room in our storage unit to store the item.

Computer Donations

• Computers, etc. can be donated directly to Computer Ministry.  Please do not leave these items at the schools, or any of the other donation locations for us to bring them to Computer Ministry. 
• Computer Ministry is a nonprofit organization that collects computers, refurbishes them and then donates the equipment to other nonprofit organizations, school groups, etc.   They are located in Mission Central, 5 Pleasant View Drive, Mechanicsburg PA 17055, 766-6373, www.compministry.org, and are open Monday Wednesday Friday 8:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.  Special weekend recycling will take place from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on the second Saturday of the month in February, May, August, and November.

• CMI will only accept monitors that are 17” in size, operational, and without any screen burn.  If you wish to donate any other monitors, CMI will be forced to charge $20.00 per monitor that does not meet this criteria

• CMI will continue to accept working laser printers and plotters.  CMI will accept ink jet printers, scanners, FAX machines, and gaming peripherals for disposal only.

Donation Locations

• Do not leave any items in front of the school buildings; donation bins are located inside the buildings. 
• Do not leave boxes/bags that are packed too heavy for one person (most of committee chairs are women) to lift. 
• We only accept back to school items, clothing and books at the bins IN the bins INSIDE the schools. 
• If you have large donations of clothing, books or any yard sale items, please contact the project coordinators

Homes

• Label any bags of items that are left at homes. Label with markers on the outside of the bag. 
• If bags are not clearly labeled, they will be disposed of.
• Contact project chair (by email or phone) before leaving any items at their homes so they can expect the donation.
• If you email the project chair a list of what you are donating (and when), we can provide you with a donation receipt.  Items just left will not get a receipt, and may just be disposed of if we don’t know what it is for.
• Do not leave your name/address/list of items donated on the bags as it can easily become lost.
• If a location has bins and signs of what to leave where (i.e. bin for yard sale, bin for clothing), please sort according.  The few minutes it takes for you to do this will save us volunteers hours of work.