How Thrift Cal Poly aims to make sustainable living simple
History sophomore Eve Stewart grew up with a deep appreciation for sustainability. During her first year living in Sequoia Hall, Stewart wanted to expand and share her passion using what she said to be the dorm’s beautiful and very visible front lawn by organizing pop-up thrift events.
“To have that [interest in sustainability] kind of resurge as a college student has been really cool because I’m really passionate about the Earth and about sustainability,” Stewart said.
A year later, Stewart is now the official founder and co-president of Thrift Cal Poly, where she organizes events and handles communications. Stewart and her co-president, anthropology and geography sophomore Anna Vanderford, aim to create an environment where students can meet new people, make friends and realize that living sustainably can be easier than they might think.
“People get the idea that if they’re not committing to a fully sustainable lifestyle that it’s not even worth it, so I feel like it’s important to remember that you can do a little bit and still make a huge impact,” Vanderford said.
The two co-presidents were roommates last year as they began the club just outside of their dorm. Now, continuing their friendship, they champion the idea of sustainability. Vanderford also said they want to build a community by meeting new attendees and becoming friends with people with the same priority.
Their application to register as a club was recently approved, and on October 21, the club kicked off their grand opening in collaboration with Beta Theta Pi.
After a member of the fraternity messaged Stewart pitching the idea of a collaboration, Stewart said Thrift Cal Poly was excited to start getting involved with Greek life on campus.
The event ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Beta Theta Pi house in the front and back yards, with a $5 entrance fee. There was free boba for the first 50 visitors and food, clothing and accessory vendors picked by Stewart. These were people that Stewart knew, and many of them had sold at Thrift Cal Poly events before. She believed they would do well with the event’s expected demographics — men from the fraternity.
“My favorite thing is when I sell something and see someone start wearing it right away,” construction management sophomore Evan Olszak said. Olszak was a vendor at this event and has been at Thrift Cal Poly events since their pop-ups began last year.
For this event, Stewart ended up picking around 12 vendors to sell their items ranging from gender-neutral, masculine and feminine clothes to jewelry, crocheted items and more.
“It’s a really cool vibe, a lot of cool people showed up,” attendee and business administration sophomore Liv Cosgrove said of the event.
Looking forward, while they don’t have any events officially planned yet, they are looking to host events about once a month, in addition to more collaborations like this event — all with the goal of teaching people how to be sustainable on a small scale.
“The goal is to help students at Cal Poly realize that sustainability doesn’t have to be all or nothing, it can be as little or as much as you want,” Stewart said.
