The men of Kappa Theta Psi have put together a clothing drive going on now until March 3 to help out the people of Ghana.

 “Many in Ghana lack the necessary clothing and shoes to achieve a decent standard of living,” sophomore Gabriel Hernandez said .

The Clothing Drive for Ghana is collecting T-shirts, shorts, tennis shoes and flip-flops.

“Most children and most people over there do not have shoes and they prefer flip-flops, oddly enough,” sophomore Dustin Peters said. “Those are definitely the two things that we are heavy on, but T-shirts and shorts are definitely welcome as well.”

The fraternity sees the clothing drive as an opportunity for themselves and their fellow students to get involved.

“Kappa Theta Psi is constantly looking for community outreach and ways to help the less fortunate,” Hernandez said.

Kappa Theta Psi has set up three different drop off locations around campus in order to make it convenient for students to participate: Dunn Library, Pfeiffer Dining Halland Hopper Gymnasium.

People are also welcome to drop off clothes at the Kappa House, which is right next to the baseball parking lot.

The fraternity was looking for a way to help Simpson College make a difference in the world when Peters came up with the idea of sending items to Ghana.

“My dad just became part of a business and he has 25 percent control of a crop out there and 50 percent is owned by the chief of the village,” Peters said. “So he is going out there and doing all these crop rotations and they have to send machinery from the United States to Ghana because they don’t have any farming equipment.”

Once Peters found out that the cargo crates, where the equipment is held, had extra space he decided to take advantage of it.

“I just came up with the idea because when my mom went over there she said that a lot of the kids were lacking clothes and lacking shoes,” Peters said. “I said ‘well why don’t we send those over because it’s not going to be any extra cost and there is plenty of space’.”

The clothes will be sent to Mampong, Ghana where Peters’ parents will be working and living.

“It’s in the south-central area of Ghana,” Peters said. “Ghana has a pretty stable government and almost never has any unrest or riots. [It] is a poor country, however, and different programs and funding goes to Ghana annually to help with its struggling economy.”

Kappa Theta Psi anticipates a successful outcome from the project in hopes of making it a yearly drive that students can be involved in.

“Since this is the first time we are doing it, just like the first time we do anything; the goal is to have it be successful,” Peters said.

The members of the fraternity see this as an opportunity to help out people in Ghana by donating items they no longer use.

“It is a great way for people to get rid of clothes they don’t want but instead of the clothes ending up in a landfill, they end up on someone’s back,” sophomore Mike Henry said.

Kappa Theta Psi considers charity an important part of the success of their fraternity. 

“Charity and service are perhaps the greatest contributions Fraternal Societies achieve,” Hernandez said. “Even if this event does not go great, we will look to continue the drive. The need for those less fortunate does not end with the end of our clothes drive.”

Kappa Theta Psi is hoping this drive will spread word about their fraternity and bring more recognition. 

“We’ve been in a rebuilding process for about the last three years and so we’ve really been trying to get ourselves back on campus, and kind of be known as we used to be,” Peters said.