More free photocopying, this time for charity

We at Springwise are always happy to chronicle the spread of a good idea, but never more so than when those doing the spreading are part of the Springwise community themselves. So it’s with great pleasure that we bring our readers one more tale of free photocopying for students, this time launched by one of our very own Springspotters in his home country of the Philippines. At the Philippines’ Prime University Ateneo De Manila, Matthew Cua is project manager of Celadon, the university’s official Chinese-Filipino organization. Charged with the task of planning the group’s Mid-Autumn Gratia faculty appreciation day celebration for this fall, Cua says he was inspired by our free love coverage to incorporate free photocopying for students into the event. Scouting around for sponsorship, Cua found a receptive audience in Dr. Diana Cua-Balcells, a local breast cancer surgeon and alumna of the university, who picked up on the idea as a way to promote breast cancer awareness on behalf of nonprofit organizations including Bosom Buddies, I Can Serve, Pink for Life, Carewell Community and the Cuabang Foundation. Accordingly, among the festival’s many offerings was a free photocopying kiosk that aimed both to promote breast cancer causes and to help support Celadon. Equipped with just a single photocopier, the outdoor stand in the middle of campus produced 8,200 free photocopies over the course of the five-day festival, serving some 500 students plus a number of faculty who made copies for their entire classes. Celadon even took the free copies idea one better by designing the paper used to serve as notepaper on the reverse side, allowing it to do double-duty in class or be reused afterwards. Celadon made minimal profit on the event, Cua says–aiming mainly to cover its costs–but the group is planning a similar effort for November, this time with commercial sponsorship, that it expects will be more lucrative. And because “moist paper doesn’t work in a photocopying machine,” Cua also notes that better precautions will be taken next time to keep the paper dry in Manila’s humid open-air environment, using heaters and special packaging. More projects are planned for Chinese New Year as well. Is there any mountain free love can’t climb? We think not. 🙂 Be inspired!