The sound of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" played as background music in the Nittany Mall's Bon-Ton yesterday afternoon as Penn State students tried to bring holiday cheer to local underprivileged preteens and teens.

The Centre County United Way teamed up with more than 30 Penn State student organizations for their ninth annual Jeans for Teens outreach program.

At 2 p.m., more than 230 Penn State students joined with 136 kids, ages 10 to 15, for an hour-and-a-half long shopping spree at either Wal-Mart, Target, the Bon-Ton, JC Penney or Macy's.

Organizations such as the Student United Way, Penn State Marketing Association, Health and Human Development Student Council and Kappa Omicron Nu sent a number of students to participate as shopping buddies.

Each teen was given $100 plus a $10 gift card to spend on the child's choice of any school-appropriate clothing -- not just jeans. Among the shoppers choices were fleece sweatshirts, plaid button-downs and long-sleeved Penn State shirts.

All the money is raised by donations to the United Way Jeans for Teens fund. Rather than giving an amount of money, some organizations or companies sponsor a child for $100. Contributions are still being accepted.

The children in the program are not used to having a shopping spree. They are selected for the program by the Youth Service Bureau or by counselors at their schools. All five school districts in Centre County participated this year.

"[The families] are really thankful. Sometimes we get thank-you notes telling us 'We wouldn't have had a Christmas without [Jeans for Teens],' " project founder Judy Vicary said.

Vicary created the program nine years ago as a classroom project in her tenure as a biobehavioral health professor at Penn State.

"We started out with five youngsters," she said. "Now we have 136, and we could do more -- there's the need."

Since last year, the number of students participating in the program has doubled.

Throughout the afternoon, students made friends talking to their shopping buddies about things like favorite colors and what matches best with an outfit.

"[The kids] seem really happy here," Amanda Wu (junior-biochemical and molecular biology) said.

Vicary describes the Penn State student shoppers as "the magic" in the program because the kids look up to college-aged students who help the children pick out clothes to ease the pressure of fitting in at school.

"[The students come into Jeans for Teens] not knowing their afternoon could inspire a kid to go to college," said Larry Snavely, chairman of the Centre County United Way Board of Directors.

At 3:30 p.m., students bid their shopping buddies goodbye and many headed to Park Forest Middle School or Nittany Mall Community Room to wrap the gifts.

"It's amazing -- so much work went into this," United Way intern Katie Cuppett (junior-public relations) said.

After all the clothes are wrapped, they are stored until just before Christmas. The Youth Service Bureau delivers the presents so the children have gifts under their tree Christmas morning.

"With the holidays coming up, I just wanted to help. It's a good cause," Jennifer Velasquez (senior-psychology) said. "It doesn't hurt that I like to shop."