Today marked the first ever Men’s Coat Drive held by the Student Fashion Association. The donated clothes will be turned into couture pieces for an annual event thrown by the charitable organization, the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The drive took place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Malcolm X Plaza, and by the time it was over, SFA had successfully filled all their three bins with donated clothing.

According to Sally Rosen, director of the St. Vincent de Paul help desk, SFA is the first organization this year to hold a clothing drive for their Discarded to Divine event. “This is a pretty good turnout. We serve 1,200 people a month, so we need a lot of clothing,” Rosen said.

During the event, SFA members were listening to music while they accepted clothing donations. Members stood in the cold weather and shouted, “Donate your coat!” to passers-by. In the background, disc jockey Prime Time spun the latest hits from artists like Kanye West.

To advertise for the event, ADM major and SFA member Julia Meeks was in charge of the window display for the event in the bookstore. She also left some flyers in the bookstore last Friday. Despite this, some SFA members were still concerned this morning that not enough people had heard about the drive ahead of time.

But in the end, things looked brighter. “All three bins are full, and we even had some clothes on the side. The turnout is much better than anticipated,” said Ashley Green, SFA president.

SFA members Green, Matthew Robinson, Ashley Nelson, Julia Meeks, Sirika Smith, Linda Lieng all participated in the event. Lieng donated women’s shoes, while the others handed out Save the Date Flyers for SFA’s next event, their fall fashion show on Dec. 1.

“I usually have lots of clothes I want to get rid of, and this was a good opportunity to support our organization and get rid of some stuff at the same time,” said Meeks.

Along with donations from SFA members, faculty and students also participated in the event. Rafael Martinez, an advisor working with the Division of Student Affairs, made a quick drop-off at the drive. Martinez has been working with Green on this event, and he was also the one who gave permission for the drive to take place with music in Malcolm X Plaza.

“I knew about [this clothing drive] through [Green.] She told me men’s clothing is really needed, so I donated lots of men’s jackets,” Martinez said.

Student, Tiffany Lintner heard about the drive from a flyer posted up in the dorms. “I saw that the clothing drive was in need of men’s clothing, so I just took some of my boyfriends old clothes,” Lintner said.

SFA is still accepting donations after today. E-mail SFA@SFSU.edu for more information.