SCARCE--unbelievable 18,000 sq ft warehouse organized with used EVERYTHING--books, musical instruments, crayons, craft stuff, metal objects, used christmas lights, and more. Our Rotary club had a tour this week of Kay McKeen's facility.
Rotary Club of Carol Stream took our Rotary meeting on the road and visited Kay McKeen and her staff at the 18,000 sq ft warehouse in Addison that is home to SCARCE. She founded the recycling/reuse facility in 1990. It has grown from a basement book collection to this magnificient collection of materials, books, musical instruments, craft items, chairs, electronics, and much more. She has people who donate these items, and with her amazing network of recipient schools, teachers, churches, individuals, she orchestrates the reuse or repurposing of these items. The number of records in her collection is phenomenal! "Education is key," she says. They have included a large room for educational purposes to help people and students learn about recycling, composting for the garden, minimizing our footprints on the earth and being good stewards of the planet. Teachers can go and pick up used books or items for use in their classrooms. With COVID having so many shut in, there are many projects that can be started from items procured from SCARCE. It really makes one think about items that normally would go into the trash: what could this be turned into? Could someone else use this in a different way?