Faith helps man turn trash into treasure
David Corner sorts through school supplies and other
donated items that will be shipped to people in need around the world.
UMNS photos by Kim Griffis.
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By Kathy L. Gilbert*
Nov. 12, 2008
David Corner has a unique talent—he sees treasure where others only see trash.
As founder of the Gathering Project, Corner, 73, is constantly
turning “garbage into gold” by diverting items meant for landfills to
people in need around the world.
A Tacoma, Wash., warehouse is filled with the “junk” the United
Methodist layman has collected from friends, schools, hospitals and many
other places. He celebrates when he finds surplus or slightly outdated
supplies he knows will be life-changing in the right hands.
A shipping container is packed
full of donated items.
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Corner gestures to a package of surgical supplies in the warehouse and compares it to gold.
“The Gathering Project was founded to collect, distribute and send
donated goods anywhere in the world that they were needed,” he explains.
“School supplies, medical supplies, and other equipment and supplies
are needed to relieve suffering in emerging countries.”
Recently, the Gathering Project was awarded the Greater Tacoma Peace
Prize. Corner will attend the Nobel Peace Prize activities in Oslo,
Norway, this December.
Ron Clogston, a hospital worker who helps out, says Corner has “a
good heart for helping people, so we’re happy to work with him.” The
project also saves local hospitals thousands of dollars a year in dump
fees, Clogston points out, adding that he feels good that their discards
provide healing for others.
Seeing the need
The project started a decade ago, after Corner visited Africa and saw
first-hand how people were in desperate need for what many people in
the United States throw away.
For example, children in many parts of the world don’t go to school
because their parents can’t afford to buy paper and pencils or pay the
$5 school fee, he explains. Women stand in line all night to get a
bucket of water when most Americans can just turn on a tap and have
fresh water. “We’re a throwaway society,” he says.
Corner oversees the loading of supplies.
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Corner was asked to be a keynote speaker for a men’s fellowship in
Ghana. He spent six weeks there and realized he could collect “junk out
of my buddies’ garages” and raise the standard of living in that African
country.
After returning home, Corner started rummaging through his friends’
closets and garages, looking for useful items. Then, he went to
hospitals, schools and government agencies asking for donations from the
supplies they discard.
By his count, he has now shipped more than 150 containers to 46 different countries.
The grandson of a Methodist Circuit Rider preacher and nephew of a
missionary to India, Corner grew up in the church. He was a statewide
youth officer, attended two Methodist-related colleges and has worked
with The United Methodist Board of Discipleship and United Methodist
Men. He currently is a member of Mason United Methodist Church in
Tacoma.
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
The Gathering Project
Mason United Methodist Church |