TILTONSVILLE — Youngsters at Buckeye South Elementary are keeping their peers a little cozier by collecting clothing for Scholastic Book Clubs Pajama Program.

Students in grades preschool through sixth grade gathered 81 pairs of sleepwear for the 10th annual Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive and the items will be donated to the Tri-County Help Center to help other children facing uncertainty, be it homelessness, foster care or poverty. Principal Julie Packer said the hope is to bring the youth some comfort amid their strife.

“Second-grade teacher Mary Matthews came to me after seeing this program and asked if we could do it,” Packer said. “We collected from mid-October to Nov. 1, and at the end of the campaign Scholastic donates books to the pajama drive.”

Students were encouraged to provide brand-new pajamas in all sizes, from newborn to adult, which were complete sets or appropriate nightgowns. The sleepwear also must be for all seasons, but especially the winter months. As in incentive, the top collecting classrooms will be treated to class parties. Fittingly, Matthews’s students and Sarah Lewton’s kindergarten class were the winners.

Packer said she was provided a list of area receiving organizations and the St. Clairsville site was included since it serves Belmont, Harrison and Jefferson counties.

“Anything we can do to give back to people, we will,” she commented. Packer said it was the first time for South to hold the program but the school may continue it in the future.

The pajama drive was organized in partnership with Pajama Program, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting a comforting bedtime routine for children affected by instability in order to help them thrive.

The Great Bedtime Story Pajama Drive is the largest such event in Pajama Program’s history with more than 730,000 pajamas donated since 2009.

Scholastic Book Clubs has also donated nearly 1 million books within that timeframe. Donations for the Pajama Program are continuous since the need is year-round. For more information, go online to www.scholastic.com/pajamadrive.