EAST STROUDSBURG - Furniture from old residence halls at East Stroudsburg University is impacting people in need as the beds, dressers and desks find new homes through local non-profit groups and charity networks.

More than 500 dressers, desks, beds and other furniture mostly from the old Hawthorn and Hemlock residence halls has been given away by the university. The two student residence halls were replaced this year by modern apartment-style residences which opened in January as Hawthorn Suites and Hemlock Suites. Other furniture came from residence halls where rooms had temporarily been used as “triples” to house three students and now were returning to “doubles.”

“The old halls are about to be torn down, but much of the furniture in them was still serviceable and has found new purpose,” said David Campbell, associate director of residence life and housing. “We’ve been at it since early February, but the bulk of what we got rid of happened in the last six to eight weeks,” Campbell said. “It has been well worth it, knowing we were able to help some people out.”

Getting rid of surplus furniture is a new experience for ESU. Before the new suites were built, almost every year the university was adding beds and dressers wherever it could to serve a growing student enrollment.

“We’re usually in the market of looking for surplus,” Campbell said. “It’s been a pleasant change, and heartwarming to hear ‘thank you, this is to going to help out a homeless family.’ ”

The university reached out to every local non-profit organization it knew of that might be able to use the furniture, then turned to some national charitable networks.

“Basically, it was first-come, first-served,” Campbell said, noting that once he connected with an organization in need of what ESU had to give, arrangements were made for the group to collect what they could use.

Most of what has been given away is furniture added in recent years as student housing needs increased. The original rooms in the dorms, built in 1965 and 1970, were furnished with built-in loft units: all-in-one pieces with a dresser connected to a desk and a wardrobe, with a bed at the end.

Big and bulky — 6 feet long, 6 feet high, and 3 feet wide — each loft unit has to be taken apart to be moved, and ESU still has 50 of them to give away.