Edwin Parr Composite School has wrapped up its Teens for Jeans campaign and donated around 700 pairs of jeans to the good cause.
“We went and dropped them off at Aeropostale at West Edmonton and they were really impressed that we had that many pairs of jeans and were from a small town and small school,” said organizer Suzanne Beckett.
“It was pretty sweet to have their support.”
The jeans were donated for a good cause.
“All the jeans go to the Youth Emergency Shelter in Edmonton. Whatever they don’t use will get redistributed to homeless shelters across the province and across the country,” Beckett explained.
“We had quite a few pairs of children’s jeans donated and those will go to the Bissell Centre for women and children in Edmonton.”
Beckett also suggested they donate jeans to native friendship centres across the province.
As for the number of pairs donated, Beckett said Athabasca never ceases to amaze.
“We didn’t quite reach our goal of 1,000 pairs, but it shows that this community does have so much to give and will support causes,” she said.
“We had 1.2 pairs of jeans for every kid in the school. We were hoping for two pairs per kid.”
Beckett added it wasn’t so much about the number at the end as the process of getting there.
“Everyone was amazed we received that many pairs of jeans,” she said.
“It ended up not being about the number as much as it was the whole process.”
Several students helped in the counting of the jeans.
“The counting was the hardest part, but there were a few girls that helped with that,” she said.
“Dayle Gill, Taylor Pente and Danikah Edwards all helped count all the jeans last week.”
The jeans filled a pickup truck bed and cab.
“It took us two hours to count, but they were also strung up around the school,” she stated.
“It was huge in the community. When we went and picked up all the boxes from Red Apple, Canadian Tire and the Dollar Store, there were three boxes and more than 100 pairs of jeans within them.”
As for when the school will do it again, Beckett responded, “I think we will have to wait a couple of years for people to grow out of their pants again before we host another.”
