Potomac High School students hold 'Teens for Jeans' drive

National Honor Society members at Potomac Senior High School collected more than 100 pairs of denim pants Saturday as part of the “Teens for Jeans” project.

“We’re very thankful for the people in the community who came out to support us,” said P.J. Regan, a teacher at Potomac.

“Teens for Jeans” is a program that distributes gently worn jeans to homeless teenagers across the country and is sponsored by the NHS.

For three weeks, NHS programs at high schools nationwide collect pants in conjunction with clothing store Aéropostale.

The grand prize for the school that donates the most jeans is $5,000, new Aéropostale jeans for every student and party for their entire school.

Regan, a psychology teacher at Potomac and the school’s NHS advisor, said the students have collected more than 1,000 pairs of jeans since Jan. 16.

“We [NHS] pick three projects a year that serve the community,” Regan said. “In the fall we collected $1,000 in gift cards for people in Holly Acres who suffered from the flooding. During the winter we did a Share the Warmth drive, collecting gloves, scarves, mittens and coats. This was our third project for the [school] year.

“The kids pick the projects,” she added.

NHS coordinators Jason Will and Andrea “Gabby” Ruano collected jeans with Regan on Saturday.

“On Friday, the school had ‘Wear a pair, share a pair,’ where students wore jeans and then brought an extra pair to be donated,” Regan said. “We have collection containers throughout the school. Today was the community drive.”

Regan said Kaiser Permanente’s Woodbridge office is running a drive this week that will contribute to Potomac’s efforts, as is Christ Chapel Church in Woodbridge.

“The Coast Guard brought 100 pairs today, too,” she said.

The project runs through the weekend and the NHS members will be sorting and packaging the jeans this week for delivery to Aéropostale by Sunday.

Regan said that if people want to donate gently worn jeans to Potomac’s cause, NHS will accept jeans all week until Friday.

“Everyone in the office knows about it,” she said, “so people can bring them in and we’ll get them.”

Staff writer Joe Conroy can be reached at 703-530-3912.