LAWRENCEVILLE — Gwinnett County youth are rallying in support of disaster recovery efforts in Haiti.

The CORE Leadership Academy, a program within the girls youth mentoring organization Diamond In The Rough, has launched a jeans drive in conjunction with Aeropostale clothing stores’ Teens For Jeans Campaign to benefit teens in Haiti and foster care and those who are homeless. Donations of new and gently used jeans will be collected from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Cannon United Methodist Church in Snellville.

Members of the CORE Leadership Program will also be collecting nonperishable food, water, baby food and toiletry items to benefit the people of Haiti.

“We are expecting a huge turnout, with people stopping by non-stop to deliver donations,” said 16-year-old Jenai Washington, vice president of special programs for
the CORE Leadership Academy.

Another group of local youth who attend Peachtree Ridge High School have planned a concert with the cost of admission and T-shirt sales to benefit to three charitable organization — Convoy of Hope, Assist International and the American Red Cross.

“I just felt like as if there’s been a lot going on in that country and they had an aftershock on top of that,” said Sophia Sharifali, who first proposed the idea of a benefit concert. “I just didn’t feel right just sitting there not doing anything.”

The concert, featuring dance and music acts, will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday at The Bridge Church in Lawrenceville. Tickets are $7 and T-shirts are available for purchase for $10.

The event will also include food donated by local restaurants, vendors selling arts and crafts, a game room and photo shoots with aspiring student photographers.

“We’re just looking to have a great time and our point here is to get young people to show up,” said Alexis Van Eyken, one of the students spearheading the event. “When we were hearing about the earthquake we wanted to figure out a way to help them that would get as many people as possible to participate so the word would get out and people wouldn’t forget about what’s happening.”