Displaced by renovations to the Holland Union Building (HUB) over winter break, the Free xChange is flourishing in its new space this semester.

Interns and volunteers at Dickinson’s Center for Sustainability Education (CSE) showed off its new, larger location by the front windows in the HUB Underground at a re-opening event February 6th.

“The Free xChange is a wonderful resource on campus where students can donate clothes that they no longer need and pick up clothes that they do need,” said Breanna Franchak ’27.

As CSE’s waste minimization intern, Franchak is responsible for maintaining and promoting the space. She said the new location is “bigger than what we had last semester and it definitely has grown to fill the space.”

In addition to the Free xChange’s well-known secondhand clothing offerings, students can now find household items like kitchenware, preservable foods, menstrual products and textbooks. 

Director of Sustainability Education Lindsay Lyons said, “food insecurity has been an issue for students, particularly over break.” The College’s dining services do not operate over winter break, though some students remain on campus. “If it can help some students, we’re excited about that too,” Lyons said.

Although Lyons is happy with the new location – it has “increased our visibility,” she said – it was not always a sure thing. When Lyons and the CSE interns got word that the multi-year HUB renovations would force the Free xChange to move for the second time in three years, they organized to argue its case.

Students put together a survey to collect testimonials about the impact of the Free xChange and Lyons shared the information with College officials. The goal was to “prove the value of this place,” Lyons said.

Office space in the HUB Underground opened up and the Free xChange was able to move in. One perk, said Lyons, was that the space was ready to use. Besides purchasing coat hangers, the move cost CSE nothing. 

The week before classes started this Spring, CSE interns and volunteers moved the whole inventory to the new space and spruced it up before students arrived on campus. 

Former CSE intern Ming Robinson ’25 stopped by to check it out on Thursday. “I think it’s great!” she said. Robinson said the location was “prime real estate right by the window to express to people, ‘come right inside.’”

Luke Heller, an eco-league exchange student from the New College of Florida, attended the re-opening event as well. ​​Heller has donated clothing to the Free xChange in the past. “I love the space,” he said. “It’s definitely great to have these different types of clothing and stuff and it’s an incredible resource to have for students on campus.”

As the Free xChange’s mission expands, its commitment to sustainability remains at the forefront. Allison Maurice ’25, an environmental science and chemistry major, said, “fabric and textile waste is a huge problem, especially in the United States.” For Maurice, the benefits are twofold: “It just gives people the opportunity to have that freedom to choose whatever they’d like to wear as well as share what they can’t use instead of putting it in landfills.”

CSE is actively looking for volunteers to help out with the Free xChange this semester. As Lyons explains, “We need one or two people to come in every day just to keep it going.” She can be reached at [email protected].