FARMINGTON – In the basement of the Education Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus, college students gather to work on a group project for their Math Concepts course. There is no one clicking away on a laptop, nobody huddled over a conference table or drawing diagrams on a wipe off board. Instead, these students are wandering around a small room crowded with such a wide variety of items that it’s almost hard to put words to.
“Anything you could possibly dream up is here,” UMF Junior Nicole Pilote said.
The students each hold a small clipboard where they keep track of their purchases- a few bottle caps at five cents each, some scraps of colorful paper for fifty cents and a steal: a tray of unused medical test tubes for a dollar. Everyone’s Resource Depot offers a little bit of everything, with items coming in from across the state as well as Farmington’s own backyard. Some big businesses, like Franklin Memorial Hospital, contribute to the treasure chest, while most items come from people’s homes- all sent to Mary Ryan at ERD to be sorted, priced and repurposed.
“Every day people come in with ideas for things that I had never even thought of,” Ryan said.
Ryan has been with the ERD since the early 80s. She joined just a couple of years after its opening in 1979. The ERD was founded by a group of UMF faculty who had seen a similar version of the store in Southern Maine. Ryan, who has a background in Environmental Studies, said her work at the ERD has fit nicely with her passions in life.
“We’ll never be perfect about the stuff we don’t want,” she said. “But people are happy to bring things here. Just because something has reached the limit of its creativity for one person doesn’t mean somebody else can’t see something different.”
The UMF students gather what they need and get ready to head out. Their professor assigned the students to create a lesson about classifying and sorting, specifying the use of “scrounged materials.”
“It’s an easy place to find materials for lessons at a decent price for college students. Getting to WalMart can be hard,” Mattie Lajoie said.
While the ERD has become a valuable resource to professors and students, it is also open to the public and Ryan strives to offer frequent project lessons based on what is available at the store. The ERD will be at the Children’s Festival held on Mt. Blue Campus this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. A hat-making project will be offered to anyone interseted in participating.
The ERD is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. It is located in room 009 of the Education Center on campus at the corner of Lincoln and High Streets.
The ERD is also available for private group visits and can be booked by calling Mary Ryan during business hours at 778-7150.
Mary Ryan is a valuable & wonderful asset to the ERD….Mary is very friendly, helpful and creative! The ERD holds many, “treasures,” that appeal to all ages.
One of my most favorite places in the world! I wish every community had a Resource Depot and a Mary Ryan to spark creativity!
My sons always loved going there when they visited my mother. And now as a grandmother myself, i look forward to taking a grandchild there.
And it is not only for kids. There are matts for framing paintings, bits of leather to make mini purses, 8×11 paper for 25 cents a half pound…and more.
Thank you, Mary!