Junior Payton Strong has been looking for a cause to donate her time and effort to, and she found it in Jeans for Teens.

“I’ve always wanted to join a service, but I decided to make my own; what better way would that be to engage our school community,” she detailed.

And engage the school community she most definitely did. The Jeans for Teens drive she ran at Loyola in January was a massive success, raising 93 pairs of jeans, just shy of her ambitious goal of 100 pairs.

Jeans for Teens is an initiative spearheaded by DoSomething.org and Aeropostale to help provide relief for homeless teens. Aeropostale and individual fundraisers can collect pairs of jeans and bring them to homeless shelters, where they are one of the most in-demand items.

It’s a noble cause that’s easy to donate to if you have a few extra pairs of jeans lying around and a cause Strong certainly enjoyed investing her time in.

“I really enjoyed designing the flyers, posters, TV graphics, and managing the Instagram account,” she detailed.

One of the challenges she said came with running the fundraiser was finding a printer large enough for the 18 by 24-inch posters.

Despite the challenges of undertaking an extensive project like Jeans for Teens, she is glad she decided to follow through with the experience and is looking forward to an even more successful fundraiser next year.

“My goals would be to double the contributions now that there is an increased awareness of my project,” Payton remarked.