By JOANNE BUTTERFIEL
With over 30,000 students moving in and out of classrooms, up and down crowded hallways and back and forth between buildings, one can imagine the variety of things which fall out of pockets and backpacks, and end up with the hundreds of other 'homeless' items in the lost and found.
The Wilkinson Center Lost and Found has everything from pens and pieces of paper to keys, coats, planners and textbooks, said Kristen Mahuika, a freshman with an open major from Vancouver, Wash. who works in the lost and found.
'We have lots of stuff coming in and out,' Mahuika said.
Another lost and found employee, Kristie Kindrick, a senior from Seattle, Wash., majoring in health education, said, 'We even get leftover lunches in tupperware.'
Kindrick and Mahuika said they have drawers full of ball point pens and scraps of paper which people find throughout the buildings. They said the ball point pens are rarely claimed.
Many students return day after day, to search for lost items. Aimee Strickland, a junior majoring in bio-chemistry, from Fairfield, Ohio, said as a freshman, she visited the lost and found regularly.
She had success each time she lost something, and at times, she felt like the employees at the lost and found knew what she was looking for as soon as she came in, Strickland said.
Other items in the lost and found include wedding rings, jewelry, single earrings and driver licenses.
The Lost and Found is located at 118 ELWC, and is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.