Teens collect jeans to help charity

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WIVB) - This story is all about a need and a will to do something good for ones community. 

According to Julia Conti, faculty advisor at Niagara Falls High School, "This is the first year that  NFHS has decided to participate in "Teens for Jeans" and this is a program sponsored by DoSomething.org and Aeropostale and what we've done this year, we've collected jeans."

NFHS Senior Irene Barry elaborated on the success of the drive, saying, "The student body has been amazing bringing stuff in.  We've had classes bring up full carts full of things, just show up with carts."

One thing is for certain, the students have really exceeded their original goal with this project.  And the jeans just keep coming. It is considered to be an enormous amount of jeans for a school of that size and for a community of that size.

So just how do you come up with so many jeans?  NFHS Student Kaitlin Stoneback put it best, saying, "I brought in 22. You tell your family members and you get them to gather up jeans that they don't use anymore. So for people who need jeans, it's good to give."

Amongst the steady stream of donations, the driving force behind the effort is clear.

NFHS Senior Kyle Daly said, "It helps reassure me that I leave a legacy for the "Class of 2012" and I think that every class wants to do that and help out people in my community. It's one of the biggest things that I want to do."

And according to Krea Ellison, "I have jeans that I don't wear, so I might as well put them to use rather than throw them away because somebody else could use them."

In the end, the Niagara Falls High School students expect to rank near the top out of 11,000 schools competing in the national challenge.

Although the school is closed Friday, students will be collecting at the high school up until 4:00 p.m. And the drive continues into the weekend. Jeans can be dropped off at the Aeropostale Fashion Outlet store in the Falls until 6:00 p.m. Sunday.

Barry said, "I never in a million years would have thought that we'd be near 3,500 pairs of jeans."

You can learn more about helping the students here.