Old Trail School students collected 344 pairs of jeans for the Teens for Jeans drive in February, bringing the School’s six-year total to 1,751 pairs. The project is part of the annual national campaign sponsored by Aeropostale and DoSomething.org, a nonprofit organization for young people and social change. This program encourages young people to collect gently used jeans to donate to youths experiencing homelessness. To date, the national campaign has collected more than 4.3 million pairs of jeans.

The Old Trail School jeans collection is part of the curriculum of the Trail to Service class, a middle school elective that provides real-life experiences for students. This group of students is responsible for researching, planning and implementing school-wide service projects, as well as receiving, evaluating and funding requests from other students and classes as they plan additional service projects.

In return for donating a pair of jeans on Feb. 13, students were permitted to wear jeans to school that day.

The collected jeans are shown above with some students.

“This is one of the most visibly rewarding service projects each year,” said Amanda Kuhen, the school’s service learning coordinator and eighth-grade teacher. “Students really get to see what the impact is of their donations. They realize that all of these jeans will be used by other teenagers who are not as fortunate as they are. It is very impactful and I’m so proud of the way our students and families support this drive each year.”