Celebrating Colleen Regan as the August 2023 Employee of the Month
Colleen did an outstanding job organizing and executing the Patriot Pack-Out (PPO) event this year, which captured unwanted items left by students as they moved out of residence halls.
- She organized space to collect (and allow students to drop off) items during the week-long move-out period
- She worked with the CVPA faculty to gain access to the Gillespie Gallery, where she compiled and sorted items
- She organized faculty, staff, and student volunteers to help
- She collaborated with 8 on-campus partner organizations that received redistributed goods for students in need; and
- She hosted sessions for current and incoming Mason students and staff to claim goods to meet their own
- Finally, she worked with 5 off-campus partners to receive the small number of items that campus partners and denizens did not claim.
Colleen's work avoided significant waste: PPO diverted over 5500 pounds of useful items from the campus waste streams at Mason's Fairfax and SciTech campuses. Almost 90% of those goods were reclaimed by members of the Mason community.
Colleen’s donation initiative – reduced Mason’s waste, decreased overall costs to Facilities and the university, and redistributed donated items to Mason students in need.
Some highlights:
- PPO 2023’s donation collection lasted from May 1 – May
- For the first time, Colleen expanded the event to include the Science and Technology Campus and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation, in addition to the Fairfax Campus.
- During this year’s event, Colleen and her colleagues and volunteers collected over 5,500 pounds of useful items for redistribution to folks in need.
- PPO 2023 hosted Mason’s first-ever Free Redistribution Event over June 26th and June 27th, where over 1,800 pounds of items were claimed by 110+ Mason students, faculty, and staff members to meet their basic needs.
- Over 4,900 , or about 90% of the total donated items, were redistributed to Mason Patriots, to our on-campus resources, and to 5 off-campus donation partners who redistributed donated items for free to the populations they serve.
- PPO 2023’s success is the result of Colleen’s long-term, comprehensive, and strategic redesign of PPO, which she began in spring 2022.
Colleen took the initiative to completely redesign PPO for 2023. PPO also educates Patriots about acceptable donation items and proper waste disposal. This protects Facilities and Housing and Residence Life staff members from improper and hazardous waste disposal and prevents negative environmental impacts (such as refrigerant leakage from small refrigerators).
More than 50 volunteers participated in donation collection, organization, and inventorying, to support PPO 2023. Donated and redistributed items included clothing and shoes, cookware and dishware, books and educational supplies, household goods and supplies, and much more!
And Colleen does all of this with compassion and a smile. During PPO thousands upon thousands of items were donated, collected, organized, and inventoried before being redistributed.
Interested in submitting a GMU Facilities Employee of the Month nomination? Check out the new process here!