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Students donate old jeans and celebrate positive body image
UC Davis’ Association of Body Image and Disordered Eating (ABIDE) kicked off its annual Great Jeans Giveaway event on May 11 with a Yoga-thon on the UC Davis Quad. ABIDE will host a series of activities throughout the giveaway event, including free yoga, fingerpainting and kickboxing to celebrate positive body image.
“We’re all about promoting body positivity,” said third-year human development major and ABIDE member Shannon George. “What the Great Jeans Giveaway does is encourage you to donate old jeans that you might not fit into anymore. It encourages you to love your body now.”
Throughout the month of May, students can donate old jeans and receive a 25 percent off coupon to Gap in return. All the donated jeans will be given to Women Escaping a Violent Environment (WEAVE), a non-profit organization in Sacramento that supports women who are experiencing or have experienced sexual or domestic violence.
The Great Jeans Giveaway began on Wednesday, May 11 with a free yoga class led by a certified Fitness and Wellness yoga instructor. The giveaway will continue with an arts and crafts event hosted at the LGBTQIA Center on Friday, May 13 and cardio kickboxing at the ARC on Monday, May 16.
Allie Fafard, a second-year sustainable agriculture and food systems major and officer of ABIDE, expressed her excitement for the giveaway activities.
“All of our events really focus on body positivity, taking a stand against the way that the media portrays body image and how it’s unrealistic and unhealthy for college students to focus on,” Fafard said.
The giveaway concludes on Friday, May 20 with Love Your Body Yoga led by a yoga instructor at the ARC, but jeans donations will be accepted all month. Donation bins can be found in the ARC, the SCC and the third floor of the Student Health and Wellness Center.
“Our general goal is to help people accept the size they’re at,” said Katie Hamlin, a counselor at the UC Davis Counseling Center. “We want them to appreciate their body and be in touch with it as it is rather than striving towards some ideal image that might be really difficult or impossible to attain. The yoga or athletic events are really to help you get in touch with being in your body right now and taking care of it in a way that feels sustainable and good.”
More information about the giveaway can be found at the Great Jeans Giveaway Facebook event page.
Written by: Emma Sadlowski — campus@theaggie.org