Inheriting the giving jean
Canon-McMillan High School students pass box after box of about 2,000 jeans onto a converted school bus to be taken to homeless shelters as part of “Teens for Jeans” project.
Canon-McMillan High School students collected nearly 2,000 pairs of jeans as part of the “Teens for Jeans” fundraiser project. Jake Farrell, left, hands one of dozens of boxes of jeans to Nick Stivison, both seniors, to be loaded on a converted school bus Wednesday.
CANONSBURG – Jeans – not genes – have been on students’ minds lately in Chelsea Geist’s science classroom at Canon-McMillan High School. Boxes of pants towered at the front of the classroom and almost completely obscured the blackboard.
On Wednesday, students loaded their lightly worn jeans – nearly 2,000 pairs – onto a school bus to be taken to the Aeropostale clothing store at Tanger Outlets. From there, the jeans will be distributed to homeless shelters throughout the country as part of a fundraising initiative through Aeropostale and DoSomething.org.
Geist helped launch the “Teens for Jeans” fundraiser at Canon-McMillan this year. She said she was blown away by the response not just from high school students and teachers, but also from members of the Canon-McMillan community.
“I was expecting to raise a couple hundred (pair) and be happy with that,” she said.
The national fundraiser distributed more than 4.3 million pairs of jeans to homeless shelters since it was founded. The school with the largest donation wins a $10,000 scholarship. Decatur High School in Alabama won last year’s competition by donating more than 7,200 pairs of jeans.
The fundraiser’s home page at DoSomething.Org says jeans are the perfect item to donate to homeless shelters.
“They can be worn multiple times between washes, can be dressed up or dressed down and provide a sense of normalcy to the person wearing them,” the website states.
Laura Reynolds, a paraeducator in Geist’s classroom, said donations were few at first, but involvement in the fundraiser snowballed.
“They were trickling in slowly, and it only took up a small space in the room, but as time wore on, more and more boxes were coming to the door and people were calling (Geist) to say they were collecting in other locations,” Reynolds said. “It’s a really good response.”
Abby Gillespie, a senior, donated 53 pairs of jeans. She explained the fundraiser to her parents, who passed along the message to their friends, and one day she had a stack of jeans at her house.
“I feel like everybody deserves a pair of jeans. It just felt like a good way to help,” she said, adding she was surprised by the level of student involvement. “It’s crazy seeing all these boxes walking in every day.”
While the boxes created a minor distraction in class, Geist said it was worthwhile.
“The boxes got in the way, too. It caused a lot of issues,” Geist said. “But at the same time, I said (to students), ‘Every time you go around those boxes, think of how fortunate you are to be able to put on clothes every day, whereas these people have nothing, not even a place to live.’ They were helping out a lot of people.”
The district is gearing up for another fundraiser to provide meals to elementary school children. The “Blessings in a Backpack” organization, which provides food and assistance to underserved students at First Street and South Central elementary schools, will host an event at the Wendy’s restaurant in Canonsburg from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb 19. The restaurant will host a backpack-themed raffle and donate 10 percent of proceeds to the organization.