I woke up yesterday morning to a familiar winter chill filling the air. The kind of chill that makes its way into your home regardless of how high the heat is turned up and immediately consumes you before you even open your eyes. The kind of chill that becomes a part of you if you have always lived in a place where it snows, as I have, where as soon as you feel it, you know that while you were sleeping, nature was busy transforming every inch of outside space as far as you can see into the distance a beautiful, pristine white.

Whenever I wake up to newly-fallen snow, I get the same feeling: complete and utter excitement followed by a list of all the ways I could spend my day. You see, a day of snow still makes me feel like I have a personal snow day to take advantage of. It’s a sort of mental health day as commanded by the snow; nature’s little gift to the child in me.

When I look back on these days that I have spent doing very little besides playing video games, watching movies or old episodes of my favorite television shows, or reading a book and drinking freshly-brewed coffee, I realize that I really am lucky. There are a lot of people out there who can’t take that one day in the dead of winter and spend it doing only what they feel like doing. There are millions of people living in this country alone who do not have a home to keep them warm and protected throughout the winter season, and 1 out of every 3 homeless people are under the age of 18.

For the fifth consecutive year, DoSomething.org has teamed up with Aéropostale and P.S. stores for the Teens for Jeans drive.

From now until February 12th, collect your gently worn jeans, any brand, and drop them off at your local Aéropostale or P.S. store. Your jeans will be donated to local homeless shelters and charities that will directly impact a homeless teen’s life. So if you’ve been putting off cleaning out your closet, or if you’re still holding on to jeans that are either too small or too big, give them a new home with someone who will greatly benefit from your contribution. When you drop off your old jeans, you will also receive 25% off a new pair of Aéropostale jeans!

In four years of the Teens for Jeans drive, over 1.5 million pairs of jeans have been collected. To help and motivate youth to have an even bigger impact this year, DoSomething.org has some amazing prizes available for schools who sign up to host a Teens for Jeans drive. As of this writing, over 7,500 schools have signed up and the school that collects the most jeans will win new Aéropostale jeans for every student, a party for their entire school, and $5,000.

Visit Teens for Jeans to sign up your school (make sure it’s okay with your school principal first!), or donate your old jeans on your own at your local Aéropostale or P.S. store and get 25% off a new pair of jeans.