Charity goes PINK

This week, consider USC’s school colors to be cardinal, gold and pink —  Victoria’s Secret PINK, that is.

The fashion line is holding clothing drives on campus as part of its “Happy Project,” a nationwide drive intended to help victims of domestic abuse that is taking place at colleges across the country.

Although the drive helps to promote PINK, USC’s efforts are aimed mainly toward helping women in need in Los Angeles.

Clothes for a cause · USC’s donations for the Happy Project will go toward the Downtown Women’s Center, which aids Los Angeles’ homeless. - courtesy of USC Victoria’s Secret Pink Campus Representatives

All donations made toward the charity will be collected at the end of the week and brought to the Downtown Women’s Center, USC’s specific charity.

The DWC is “a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that provides over 50,000 meals, 47 permanent supportive housing apartments, and a wide array of health, education, and other supportive services to more than 2500 homeless and very low-income women each year,” according to the center’s mission statement. Though the project is mainly a women’s clothing drive, it has been collecting men’s clothing, as well, along with other housing items, such as linens, toiletries and canned goods.

Juniors Lindsey Mathias (public relations) and Riannon Trutanich (broadcast and digital journalism) — the “Pink Campus Representatives” for USC — that they hope the clothing drive will increase student involvement in philanthropy.

Trutanich said she hopes that the campaign can motivate to help out.

“Eighty percent of the women [at the center] are under age 30, so it is a great way to support our local community,” she said.

The way the Happy Project works is simple: Students can drop off their donations at bins located across campus. In exchange for clothing donations, students get free merchandise from the PINK line.

Mathias and Trutanich are in charge of the event on campus, and making sure that students stay engaged and consistent in their donations.. And although the drive has been going on since Oct. 11, the pair is working very hard to make sure the last week is the biggest one yet.

Along with organizing the clothing drive, Mathias and Trutanich are coordinating a variety of activities around campus. The two are trying to generate as much interest in the charity as possible, and are doing so in a variety of ways to attract those who might not usually be willing to donate.

Their main strategy? School spirit.

As an added incentive for donations, the Happy Project is also hosting a competition between USC and UCLA.

The school with the most donations at the end of the project will receive a huge PINK bash sponsored by Victoria’s Secret during the week of the USC-UCLA football game, Mathias said.

Thus far, Mathias and Trutanich have rallied support for the project through its Facebook page and speaking at sorority Monday night dinners. On Wednesday, with the help of their PINK team, they will hold a staffed event in the lobby of New/North residential colleges where students can receive more merchandise in exchange for donations.

“We currently have between 400 and 500 donations,” Mathias said. As of now, other universities across the nation have around 2,000 to 3,000 donations each, according to Mathias.

Although these numbers are not particularly promising for USC’s efforts, the campus representatives hope that the USC student body will be motivated by its deep-rooted competitive spirit to beat the Bruins and will get out and make the donations.

Mathias and Trutanich urged students to keep an eye out for the PINK collection bins around campus, clear some space in their closets and give the Trojans one more bragging right over the Bruins.

As the Happy Project’s Facebook page sums it up: “Give love, get Pink and beat UCLA.”