Shannon McEnerney | Oct. 14, 2009
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| Photo by Shannon McEnerney |
| Graduate student John Patishnock showed his film, Trash to Treasure, Tuesday night to an audience in the Ernie Pyle auditorium. The film documents a recycling fundraiser at Penn State. |
But that all changed by the time Patishnock finished shooting more than 60 hours of film and interviewing more than 50 people. The end result of his work culminated in his documentary, Trash to Treasure, which he directed, produced and wrote, and showed to an audience at the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium Tuesday night.
Patishnock said he wanted to show his film to the public in hopes of inspiring others and perhaps generating enough interest for a similar project to start at IU.
Trash to Treasure started at Penn State University in 2002. At the end of each school year, students donate items they no longer need, such as carpets, fans, clothing items, electronics, books and furniture. These donated items are then sorted and sold at the Trash to Treasure sale at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium.
Thousands come each year for the one-day sale in hopes of finding treasures from all the unwanted items students leave behind, Patishnock said. The items are sold at a reasonable cost, affordable for all families and members of the community. The sale has raised more than $370,000 for Pennsylvania’s Centre County United Way and saved over 550 tons of goods from being shipped to a landfill.
A 2005 journalism graduate of Penn State University, Patishnock was working at the university when administrators at the school approached him about making a film about the fundraiser. Before they could finish asking, Patishnock said he was so excited about the project that he jumped out of his chair and said yes. To get the whole process on film, he began working weeks before the date for Trash to Treasure, which usually is in late May after students have moved out and volunteers have sorted thousands of items.
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| Courtesy still from Trash to Treasure |
| During the Trash to Treasure event, people who bought items helped raise more than $60,000 for the local United Way. The event relies on hundreds of volunteers. |
“I hope people leave thinking, ‘If Penn State has it, why can’t we?’” Patishnock said. “I want to get the film out there.” Already, the film has been submitted to a number of film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival.
Patishnock’s film showed every aspect of the Trash to Treasure process: the long lines of people waiting outside of Beaver Stadium on the day of the sale, the rows and rows of donated items. It showed the benefits: all of the donations this year helped hundreds of people throughout the community, raising more than $60,000 for the local United Way.
The film explores what would happen if not for the fundraiser. All of the 63.4 tons of donated items would have been thrown away and deposited into a landfill. Instead, all the donated items were sold to the community at low cost, benefiting the people who need to get rid of their items and the people who are in search of new belongings.
Patishnock said he is connecting with an IU campus group that is working to decrease the waste acquired during off-campus moves. He said he has spoken with people at Sustainable IU and he is continuing to meet with others with similar projects.
“The one thing I hope people take away is how easy it is to reuse, reduce and recycle,” Patishnock said. “Anyone can do it.”
When he moved to Bloomington this past August to begin graduate school, Patishnock brought the film with him. He said he chose IU for graduate school because he found himself fitting in with the journalism masters program.
“I hesitate to use the word perfect,” Patishnock said, “but it was a really good situation.”
A native of Pennsylvania, he wanted to experience something different. He said so far, he is happy with his experiences at IU and is glad that he was able to get out of his comfort zone.
As Patishnock pursues his masters in journalism, he said that he wants to make an impact in the lives of others and get people interested in how to improve the environment.
“Who won’t be affected?” Patishnock asked. He described this as the “ripple effect,” and said that even if someone doesn’t care about the environment, it doesn’t matter because the environment still affects that person. Patishnock said he wants to use his journalism training to inform people what is going on in the communities around them.
“Connecting with people on a personal level is very, very satisfying,” he said.
Freshman Samantha Kirby attended Tuesday’s screening because she heard about it in one of her journalism classes and was interested in checking the film out.
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| Photo by Shannon McEnerney |
| Patishnock is eager to support an event similar to Trash to Treasure here at IU. “Connecting with people on a personal level is very, very satisfying,” he said. |
As far as implementing a similar program at IU, Kirby said she thinks it could work. She said she has heard of other programs like Trash to Treasure at other colleges.
Patishnock said he only knows that Notre Dame, University of Miami at Ohio, the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania have programs similar to Penn State’s Trash to Treasure. But he’s ready to jumpstart such a project here.
“One of the reasons I came to IU is that I don’t know anyone,” Patishnock said. “I want to see if I can go somewhere new and meet new people and grow and build from the ground up. It’s really an adventure.”
