JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times

Signs encourage students to donate unwanted items they are clearing out of their dorms rather than throwing them away on a trash bin in front Ambler-Johnson Hall at Virginia Tech.

BLACKSBURG -- A group of parents lounged in lawn chairs along Otey Street, waiting for their children to cross the lawn, toting boxes of belongings to the open van doors.

Big blue trash bins throughout the Virginia Tech campus overflow with the drawers, appliances and beddings that students don't want anymore.

It's move-out time for students, and the YMCA at Virginia Tech is trying to capitalize on that. The Y is taking leftover items for its annual "YToss?" collection. The program asks students leaving for the summer to donate any items they don't want, as long as they are in good condition.

Donors can also get a receipt for a tax write-off.

In August, when students return for the fall semester, the items will be sold at discounted prices at the YMCA's thrift store on Main Street, said coordinator Sandy Wirt.

"There's so much just blatant waste that happens this time of year, so it certainly makes it easier to access the items," Wirt said.

Anyone in the community can make purchases from the store, she said. Often, international students and lower-income residents love to rummage through donated clothes and appliances.

Wirt and her band of about 75 faculty, staff and community members will be staffing tables and collection vans at six spots on campus through Thursday. Unless they're graduating this weekend, students are supposed to be out of dorms by noon Thursday.

This is the third year for YToss, modeled after a similar program at the University of Illinois.

In 2006, after fuel and overhead costs were subtracted, the Y made about $2,000 from the thrift store sale. Last year, the number increased by about $4,000. But volunteer and marketing coordinator Sherrie Mersdorf said the collections were advertised more this year, and they're looking for even more items.

Some of the would-be junk is resilient.

Mersdorf, a graduating marketing major, said that she plans to donate a DVD player she originally purchased from the summer sale, and she's seen a refrigerator that's been around since the beginning of YToss as well.

Other items, such as a smashed computer monitors and one donor's futon that has seen the results of too many parties, won't make the white donation vans.

"It's amazing how much stuff we collect," Wirt said.

"People are looking for those refrigerators, those hutches, all those things that are going to make that residence hall more like home [at the sale]."