Jam the Gym | Video

Kristin Clouston | 12/5/2012

While a lot of kids are busy making lists of things they`d like for Christmas, young people in Bismarck are spending the week gathering things for the needy. Students from BHS, Century, St. Mary`s and Shiloh are all busy "Jamming the Gym."

This is the first year the high schools decided to do a service project together.

"It`s a lot more successful than we thought it would be. It`s been overwhelming all the stuff we`ve gotten so it`s been awesome," said St. Mary`s student Liv Stromme.

All week students have been collecting money, clothes and blankets.

"The nice thing about this is that it`s all gonna stay local and the way we`re getting active is, for example last night. We had donations given for our dance instead of the fee," said Century student Jacob Sommerfield.

They`re going to donate everything to the United Way, Ruth Meiers, Abused Adult Resource Center, Head Start and the Ronald McDonald House.

"The places we`re going to donate to, they really need toiletries is one of the things they said they always need so I guess that was our main goal, to help the people that needed stuff," said Shiloh student Mikayla Forness.

Students say the project is a lot of work.

"We come in here every single day after school and we sort everything. It`s just mostly putting different sets of clothes in different boxes. Shirts in one box, pants, in another little kids clothes and then we have to count the items all to see what our final numbers are," said BHS student Paige Thomas.

So far BHS has collected more than a thousand items and St. Mary`s has gathered two thousand, but they say it isn`t a competition and all the items will be put together.

If you want to help, you can drop items off at any of the high schools through tomorrow afternoon.

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