A new Tempe business is bringing opportunities to chiseled, college-aged studs seeking work.
College Hunks Hauling Junk, which has been in Tempe since August, is a full-service junk removal company that employs college-aged students.
Pairs of these so-called “college hunks” drive around in a green and orange truck they call “Sparky” doing what the name of the business implies.
“They’ll essentially do anything,” said Kristen Hoffner, co-owner of the Tempe franchise.
The hunks remove junk, help people move and clean, disassemble hot tubs, take yard waste and offer their labor to clients.
Justin VanDerlinden, a first-year student at the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix, said they get calls to move surprising things like a pipe organ or boxes of Campbell’s Soup labels.
Hoffner said the business donates or recycles about 70 percent of the junk they remove to recycle facilities and organizations like Goodwill and St. Vincent de Paul. She said going to the disposal facility is a last resort.
“We’re donating wherever and whatever we can,” Hoffner said.
Hoffner owns the Tempe franchise with her husband Rory, along with business partners Kristen Hays and Shannon Perkins.
Hoffner said she helped open the Tempe operation because she was inspired by the environmentally friendly nature of the business, as well as the college focus.
“I was so excited to help college students find work,” she said.
Hoffner’s cousin Nick Friedman and his partner Omar Soliman started College Hunks together in 2003 after they graduated from Pomona College and the University of Miami, respectively.
The business started with a truck borrowed from a furniture business that Soliman’s parents owned and has grown to include 30 franchises in metropolitan areas across the country.
College Hunks makes a point to hire clean cut and ambitious men. The company’s slogan is “Let tomorrow’s leaders haul your junk today.”
Hunk employee Ben McDonald, who graduated from ASU in 2008 with a degree in architecture, said that although junk hauling isn’t necessarily related to his preferred career path, the business experience will be helpful in the long run.
“This plays a practical role,” McDonald said. “Having customer service and interaction with people is essential in almost any business.”
Perkins, a co-owner of the business, said the name, College Hunks Hauling Junk, gets a lot of attention from male and female passersby alike, and that it’s one of the reasons she got into the business.
VanDerlinden agreed with Perkins about the catchy name.
“It brings a smile to my face every time I say it,” he said.
Reach the reporter at svaltier@asu.edu
