A Long Beach Girl Scout and the Hughes Middle School Green Team Eco-club will work with Goodwill later this month to gather used clothes for those in need in Los Angeles County.

Elisabeth Figueroa-Santana and the Eco-club, in cooperation with Goodwill, will host a used clothing drive at Hughes Middle School, located at 3846 California Avenue, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM on February 21.

According to a statement from Goodwill, Figueroa-Santana is a Girl Scout Silver Award candidate, and she organized the event to support her project to build a “low impact design” demonstration garden that include a rain garden, an above-ground cistern and specialized irrigation systems on the Hughes campus.

Goodwill said it will provide Figueroa-Santana with an honorarium for each pound of material donated, and donations will also be accepted for her Silver Award project at the used clothing drive. Checks can be written to Troop 1233.

Those interested in donating are encouraged to drop off clothing, accessories, shoes and household fabrics. All donations, which are tax-deductible, will go to Goodwill of Southern Los Angeles County (Goodwill SOLAC) for resale to support education, skills training and job placement services for people with barriers to employment and other disabilities.

“Last year, Goodwill provided services for more than 6,400 people, trained 1,888 and placed 230 people in competitive employment,” according to a statement from Goodwill. “Donors can receive a donation receipt for their taxes. Donating old clothing and textiles has positive environmental benefits. Every year over 11 million TONS of textiles – almost 85% of all textiles — end up in the landfills rather than in donation programs. Textile waste is particularly serious as textile manufacturing is very resource intense. For example, it takes approximately 700 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to manufacture just one cotton t-shirt. And while cotton crops cover just 2.5% of the world’s cultivated land, they are treated with 25% of world’s insecticides.”