Once a year, the inside of Legends and its surrounding parking lot fills with usable goods being sold for discounted prices to prevent 70 tons of waste from going to the landfill.

The Big Sale, hosted by Appalachian and the Community Together, collects items like couches, clothes and office supplies at the end of the previous school year to sell for discounted prices, which raises money for local charities. 

This year, the $31,257.67 raised will go to F.A.R.M. Cafe, Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture, the Ashe County Sharing Center and the Hospitality House. 

Megann Southworth, a student volunteer, said members of the ACT Office will collect items during the Don’t Throw It Away campaign for The Big Sale. 

“This year, we had a whole beekeeping suit with a smoker,” Southworth, a senior sustainable development major, said. “We will literally take anything because, at the end of the day, someone is going to want it.” 

Southworth said The Big Sale helps keep Boone clean and invests the funds back into the community. 

“It’s a win-win for everyone, like locals, students, those organizations,” Southworth said. “It’s something to care about.” 

The first Big Sale took place in 2001 after a student, Natalie Knight, realized most of the items in her room were on a donation list sent out by OASIS, ACT assistant director for leadership and outreach Macki Snyder said. 

“Natalie came up with the idea of donating their things to OASIS,” Snyder wrote in an email. “Natalie then started a conversation with University Housing and that’s how Don’t Throw It Away started.”

Snyder wrote that starting in 1999, all items collected were donated to OASIS. After two years, the idea was adjusted into a yard sale to raise money for local nonprofits. 

Now, the money raised by the sale is used for grants that local organizations can apply for to save money and reduce energy usage. 

“We raise thousands of dollars that are awarded in the form of energy efficiency grants,” Snyder wrote. “We help to reduce the financial barrier to become more energy efficient. They can then put those cost savings towards other necessary expenses within their organization.”

Southworth said the organizations receiving money from The Big Sale are important for the community. 

“These organizations do so much for the community that we as students often don’t see because we don’t often take advantage of those resources because we don’t need them,” Southworth said. 

Renee Boughman, executive director for F.A.R.M. Cafe wrote in an email that the F.A.R.M. Cafe leadership was excited to receive the grant and was thankful for the efforts to help feed all regardless of means.