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Thank you to all who have donated items to Operation Wildcat.  We are continually overwhelmed by the generosity of our community.  Please keep in mind that we are all 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 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 only at prearranged time at our warehouse.  Please do not “dump and run” these items.   Large pieces of furniture are stored in our warehouse at North York Street.  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 facility. 

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Not sure where to donate your items?  Here's the general rule

1. if it's for students, donations go to MMS (preferably but any district building is okay). 
Donations accepted during school hours 

2. If it's for households, donations go to the warehouse, 507 N York Street. 
Donations accepted most Saturdays and Sundays 1-3pm

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For a sheet reference of what to donate and where click here. 

 
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, 717-795-7372, mommagic@comcast.net or Donna Gavin, adgavin@msn.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 Donna.

 
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 (Erin Arva, earva@comcast.net , 717-877-8893 ) 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 information, please visit: http://recyclebicycleharrisburg.org/

 

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 chair (Holly Anderson 717-253-7076  hrfrock@yahoo.com) in advance to arrange delivery.

 
Clothes

• We only accept new or gently used clothing items.

• We cannot accept any items with stains or tears.

• 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 coordinators (Melissa Herbein, melissaherbein@gmail.com or Meg Brown pmbrown2@msn.com) to arrange for drop off.

 

Furniture

• For all furniture donations please contact Maureen with pictures of the furniture items you would like to donate (mmross4@comcast.net, 717-773-1988).  No furniture will be accepted without pictures sent ahead of time to ensure we have room in the warehouse, and they are items our families can use. 

• We no longer accept any electrical items that need to be installed (unless NEW in box) - no ceiling/wall lighting, ceiling fans, etc. as we have no way to test them. 

• We no longer accept glass top furniture items (table tops, coffee table/end tables with glass tops).  Our warehouse does not have the room to properly store these items. 

• We only accept new or gently used furniture.  We cannot accept any items that 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

• 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 one of the project coordinators.  

• DO NOT LEAVE FURNITURE AT WAREHOUSE UNLESS YOU HAVE MADE ARRANGEMENTS WITH MAUREEN.  FURNITURE can only be left at the warehouse during open hours, Saturdays and Sundays 1

Yard Sale 

• We are only accepting items in good to very good condition. 

• Yard sale items can be donated whenever the warehouse is open.  Warehouse is usually open Saturdays and Sundays 1-3pm.  Warehouse is located at 507 N York Street   

• Please contact Maureen Ross @ 717-773-1988 or mmross4@comcast.net if you have any questions

   

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, 717-766-6373, 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

 
School buildings     

• 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 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.    

• 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.   

• 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 accordingly.  The few minutes it takes for you to do this will save us volunteers hours of work.

 

Warehouse 507 N York Street Mechanicsburg 

• DO NOT LEAVE ANY ITEMS OUTSIDE THE DOORS TO THE OW WAREHOUSE. 

• There are other places of business in this building.  The OW warehouse is NOT open on a daily basis, as we are an ALL volunteer organization. Contact Maureen 717-773-1988 to make arrangements.

• Warehouse is open most Saturdays and Sundays 1-3pm

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