The Martlet

Another student group wants your underwear — this time, especially if you’re a guy.

A crew of UVic nursing students is holding an undie drive for the entire month of March, in support of Our Place, a local organization that provides services to Victoria’s homeless, marginalized and street-based community.

Travis Baugh-Allen, a third-year nursing student and a member of the eight-person group, says that while donations of other articles of clothing are relatively constant at Our Place, supplies of new, clean underwear — particularly men’s smalls and mediums — are in high demand.

“Often three pairs of underwear will come in, and within an hour they’ll be gone but more people will have come in asking for some in that time,” Baugh-Allen said. “There never seems to be enough.”

Baugh-Allen says that despite the rise in underwear drives popping up around Victoria in recent months, the nursing students got their idea from witnessing first-hand the demand in Our Place. While the organization will sometimes receive donations of women’s underwear, men’s are almost non-existent. Baugh-Allen believes that since it’s something that is not often talked about, many people don’t often consider underwear when it comes to donating clothes.

But, he adds, hygiene is a basic need that has to be addressed — especially in the street community.

“When you’re on the streets you can’t wash your clothes or change your wardrobe,” he said. “I can get up in the morning, put on a fresh pair of underwear and go to school, and it’s not something I have to think about. For some people that’s a luxury they don’t get to have.”

Baugh-Allen says the goal of this undie drive is to improve the hygiene, health and dignity of many Our Place residents. The group hopes to make a donation of 1,000 pairs of underwear to the organization during the Our Place Health Fair, which the nursing students will be hosting in April.

And this drive doesn’t stop at one campus. The group has challenged Camosun students to come up with 500 pairs of underwear, and hopes UVic students will do the same — if not better.

Three boxes have been placed around campus: one near the Cinecenta entrance of the Student Union Building (SUB), and two more on the third floor of the Human and Social Development (HSD) building near the nursing department.

“Underwear is cheap and plentiful and not hard to give away,” Baugh-Allen said. “But for people on the street it makes a big difference. It means showering and being able to change into a clean pair when they’re done.”

The group is asking for donations of only new or lightly-used underwear to send to Our Place to distribute amongst the homeless population.

While hygiene is the message that most of the nursing students hold in the forefront of the drive, Baugh-Allen says his own inspiration for the project was born out of frustration.

“It’s really frustrating to see people coming in to Our Place and having to tell them we can’t fulfill a basic need for them,” he said. “I know I’d be pretty upset if I couldn’t change my underwear everyday.”

For more info contact Travis Baugh-Allen, at travisba@uvic.ca.