'Tis the season of giving. That may the reason for new donation bins popping up around town. Some local charities warn you should think twice before dropping stuff in certain boxes.
Several people contacted 17 News inquiring about new green donation bins at various places around Kern County. The bins are for dropping off clothes for a non-profit. If you read the fine print, the cause has nothing to do with benefiting local families.
For the past few days outside Bob Manik's Indian Restaurant, there sits a shiny big green box. Manik gave permission to a man who wanted it there.
The green box lists a non-profit organization called Campus California with a website and a local address. Manik says, "Then I am driving down the street and I see these boxes popping up all over the place and I am like what's going on."
That's when Manik started having second thoughts. "I had some questions and concerns I was thinking about calling them," said Manik.
We visited the address listed on Panama Lane. It turned out to be a P.O. Box. And on the company's website it says, Campus California collects and sells used clothing to support the training of international volunteers to help develop poorest parts of the world. A mission quite different than local charities such as Goodwill Industries.
Ken Beurmann of Goodwill Industries says, "I would encourage the population to do their research before they donate, because you want to make sure your donation benefits us locally and not another nation or country. You just don't know where other donations end up."
In hindsight, Manik is now rethinking his willingness to allow the bin to sit on his property.
"They should help people locally if they are going to do it," Manik says.
A rep for Campus California, Jan Sako, issued a statement saying, "The clothing collection program was recently expanded to Bakersfield. We chose Bakersfield because it is one of the largest remaining population centers in California without a similar program."
Campus California's website says it is an independent charity based in the Bay Area.
