Sarasota Police Department collecting donations for Teens for Jeans

Drive for homeless youth will continue through Jan. 25

The Sarasota Police Department. File photo
The Sarasota Police Department. File photo

For the third year in a row, the Sarasota Police Department is collecting jeans for the Teens for Jeans campaign, the department has announced.

The initiative is part of a national campaign in collaboration with Aeropostale stores and www.DoSomething.org, a news release says.

Donations of new or gently used jeans may be dropped off through Monday, Jan. 25, at the Police Department headquarters, located at 2099 Adams Lane in downtown Sarasota, the release adds. The Police Department lobby has a yellow bin marked for the clothing, the release notes.

With more than 1.5 million teenagers and children homeless in the United States, the release points out, Teens for Jeans is a campaign that helps those most needing help. “When children run away or are taken to a shelter for immediate assistance, it’s often without any personal belongings,” Capt. Corinne Stannish of the Criminal Investigations Division explained in the release. “They’re sent to school with borrowed items and feel like they stick out,” she added in the release. “Children that are able to have a pair of jeans to wear to school — it helps them fit in and it doesn’t make them feel like attention is being immediately drawn to them by what they are wearing.”

Stannish is heading up the campaign, the release says.

For more information about the program, visit http://www.dosomething.org/teensforjeans.