Key Club’s goal is to donate their service to the community. The club fulfilled their purpose when they held their Jeans for Teens drive, in which they collected 146 pairs of gently used jeans from Tuesday, Feb. 2 to Friday, Feb. 26 to give to local shelters and Seminole County Public Schools’ Families in Transition.

Sophomore and Key Club member Caterina Recine proposed the idea for a jeans drive benefiting at-risk youth through a campaign by dosomething.org.

“She brought us the idea and I thought it was wonderful,” Ariza said. “I have had the privilege of working with students who are in the program [Families in Transition], so when we found out it was for our own SCPS students, we were very excited.”

Unlike their shoe box gift drive in December aiding teens in Europe, the club wanted to find ways to assist Seminole County.

“Jeans are such a versatile clothing piece, so this was a great opportunity for us to make a difference in our local community,” Editor Tess Marvin said.

President Hannah Suehle notes that this drive’s success was partly due to increased incentives. Sponsor Nitza Ariza offered extra credit to those in her classes who participated and one hour of community service out of the four required hours per semester to Key Club members who donated two pairs.

Despite these incentives, charity was still the primary motivation for Key Club members.

“It’s always nice, if you have an abundance of something, to allocate some of it to someone else in need,” Marvin said.

Key Club’s plans for the rest of the semester include continuing their Major Emphasis program servicing the Ronald McDonald House, volunteering at the Special Olympics at Lake Mary Prep on Sunday, Feb. 28, Operation Give Back events and their district convention in Orlando, April 28-May 1.