More than 100 volunteers teamed up with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity in September to recover from the BMO Harris Bradley Center approximately 60,000 pounds – $50,000 worth – of reusable material donated by the Milwaukee Bucks. The effort is Habitat’s largest deconstruction project to date.
The group, which included volunteers from Milwaukee Tool, Fiserv Inc. and We Energies, logged a collective total of 1,000 hours over eight days.
The salvaged items were resold at the organization’s three Habitat ReStore locations in Walker’s Point, Greenfield and Wauwatosa. Proceeds from the stores help cover the cost of supplies and equipment needed for the organization’s homebuilding initiatives.
Among the items recovered were cabinetry, which was re-priced at $150 per cabinet; luxury box seating re-priced at $30 per seat; and carpet squares re-priced at $2 each. In addition, Bucks lockers sold for $120 each, with Milwaukee Admirals lockers selling for $60 each.
“A lot of this stuff does not belong in a landfill,” said Jake Weiler, Habitat’s deconstruction services manager. “It has a second life to it, and because of the deconstruction team, the volunteers and ReStore, the community has access to it and someone else is going to have a great product for years to come.”
