AEDC donates to 'Teens for Jeans'

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Jeans, blue jeans, skinny jeans, denim or dungarees are all familiar to everyone as a 'go to' article of clothing for work or play.

According to DoSomething.org there are 1.7 million homeless teens in the U.S. and the number one item teens request in shelters is a pair of jeans.

AEDC has teamed again with the Air Force Junior ROTC (AFJROTC) at Franklin County High School (FCHS) for a Teens for Jeans drive. The jeans will be provided for homeless teens in Middle Tennessee.

"Thanks to you, we collected over 6,500 jeans last year, the fifth most in the nation out of 12,000 schools that participated," said Chief Master Sgt. Everett Smith, an AFJROTC instructor at FCHS. "The year before, we collected the most out of any school in the country."

The year the school collected the most jeans of any U.S. school, at 3,692 pairs, was in 2011 and they received an award from the drive sponsors DoSomething.org and Aéropostale, Inc., a specialty retailer of casual apparel.

The school's goal this year is at least 4,000 pairs of jeans. Due to the generosity of the community they exceeded that goal last year.

This drive is the third time AEDC has participated. 2nd Lt. Chance Johnson, in the AEDC Test Systems Acquisitions Branch, is leading the drive at AEDC and expects continued involvement from the base.

"I hope this effort not only brings awareness to the concerning amount of teens who are homeless but that it also demonstrates the base's continued support for the local community," Johnson said.

All sizes and styles of jeans are accepted and may be dropped off in donation bins located in the lobbies of the Carroll Engineering Analysis Facility building 1103, the ASTF Test Support building 1099 and the Administration and Engineering building 100. The jeans must be in wearable condition and may be donated through Feb. 7.

Since the start of the Teens for Jeans drive in 2007, 2.5 million pairs of jeans have been collected.

For more details on the nationwide drive, see this site: www.DoSomething.org.