Sorority battles homelessness

Gamma Sigma Sigma holds event to collect jeans for homeless teenagers

One hundred and thirty pairs of gently worn jeans of all brands and sizes were donated Jan. 25 and 26, as Gamma Sigma Sigma, the national service sorority on campus, held a “Teens for Jeans” event to collect jeans for the local homeless youth.

After doing some research, junior biology major and vice president of Gamma Sigma Sigma, Kaitlin Dietz came across the DoSomething.org website which claims to give students opportunities in “powering offline action.” It was on this website that Dietz found out about the “Teens for Jeans” drive sponsored by the Do Something organization and the Aéropostale clothing store.

“I thought it was a great opportunity to give back to our community,” Dietz said. “I wanted this event to be all about creating awareness on the homeless youth. You don’t really think about kids being homeless, but they make up over 30 percent of all homeless people nationwide.”

According to DoSomething.org, “One out of every three homeless people is under the age of 18,” and “1.6 to 1.7 million people under eighteen will experience homelessness each year.”

Since homelessness is so prevalent among the youth of our nation, the Do Something organization and Aéropostale partnered with over 600 homeless shelters and charities in both the United States and Canada in order to ensure that all donations go to the needs of the local communities where the jeans are donated.

“From Jan. 17 to Feb.13, all Aéropostale stores will collect jeans and offer a 25 percent discount on a new pair of jeans in the store when you donate. But I plan to bring the jeans we collect to the Aéropostale near my home and donate them then. Aéropostale will then take all the jeans where they are needed most,” Dietz said. “So if students forgot to bring the jeans they don’t wear anymore to the drive they can still contribute to the cause we are supporting.”

Despite the bad weather that occurred during the drive, a wide variety of students made the soggy trek to campus and willingly contributed their old jeans.

“We sat under the awning of Arts and Sciences in the pouring rain and people still donated so many jeans,” said Gamma Sigma Sigma member and sophomore sociology and English major, Lexi Kraft. “I think that advertising in the Residence Halls and on campus really helped get the word out to students outside of Gamma Sigma Sigma, and resulted in an amazingly large number of donated jeans. Everyone donating seemed quite enthusiastic about the cause. It appeared to me that lots of participants were overwhelmingly eager to get involved.”

Many of the contributors to the drive were thankful to have an excuse to clean out their closets while feeling good about where their “junk” was going.

“I had already grown out of the jeans I gave and it is a great way to help others in need. It is a good program and a good way to give back,” said Daniel Morris, a junior accounting major.

After the drive, Dietz totaled up the number of jeans collected and gave word to the president of Gamma Sigma Sigma, Megan McGuire.

“I am very impressed with the amount of jeans that we collected to help those in need this winter. Our goal was 50 jeans, so we met and far exceeded our goal. Gamma Sigma Sigma is thankful for the students of GCSU and the community of Milledgeville who did some early spring cleaning to contribute to our ‘Teens for Jeans’ collection,” said McGuire, a senior early childhood education major.

Even after this event was such a success, Gamma Sigma Sigma still plans to do something later in the spring when they host their annual T-shirt and coat drive.

“We are also looking forward to a drive in March to collect winter jackets for Safehouse Outreach,” McGuire said. “Last semester we collected over 1,200 t-shirts for those that are homeless in Atlanta and visit Safehouse Outreach. Help us, help others. Save your winter coats and look for more information later this semester about donation sites.”

For more information on the “Teens for Jeans” drive or other service opportunity ideas, visit www.dosomething.org.