123,000 Pairs of Pants Are Collected and Distributed in Donation Drive Inspired by 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,' from Warner Bros. Pictures; In May's 'Share The Pants' Month Each Pair of Pants Collected Will Help to Create Jobs.

BURBANK, Calif. -- Friendship, empowerment and self-sufficiency are among the themes of the new film from Warner Bros. Pictures, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," and people across North America "Joined the Sisterhood" in May. Participants donated 123,000 pairs of pants in a unique and hugely successful nationwide project, providing their gently used jeans to charity -- primarily Goodwill Industries, the world's leading nonprofit provider of education, training and career services for people with disabilities, welfare recipients and other job seekers.

Inspired by the jeans featured in the film, organizers donated each pair of pants collected in the U.S. and Canada at Goodwill locations, theater chains, Color Me Mine and Levi's stores, to Goodwill Industries. Goodwill, in turn, will sell the pants, earning revenues to fund job training and other career services to prepare people for job success.

Based on Ann Brashares' best-selling novel, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," starring Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel, is about a special summer in the lives of four lifelong friends who are separated for the first time. On a shopping trip, they find a pair of thrift-shop jeans that fits each of them perfectly and decide to use these pants as a way of keeping in touch over the months ahead, each one wearing the jeans for a week to see what luck they bring her before sending them on to the next. Though miles apart, the four friends still experience life, love and loss together in a summer they'll never forget.

People who donated a pair of jeans to the drive each received a special "Join The Sisterhood" bracelet in recognition of their contribution, symbolizing their allegiance to one another -- in friendship and philanthropy.

Goodwill was founded in 1902 in Boston by Rev. Edgar J. Helms, a Methodist minister. Helms collected used household goods and clothing in wealthier areas of the city, then trained and hired people to repair and sell the used goods. The system worked, and the Goodwill philosophy of "a hand up, not a hand out" was born. Today, Goodwill Industries is a $2.4 billion international network of 207 independent, community-based nonprofit organizations serving more than 700,000 people in the U.S., Canada and 22 other countries.

Alcon Entertainment presents a Di Novi Pictures / Debra Martin Chase Production, in association with Alloy Entertainment, a Ken Kwapis Film: Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Alexis Bledel star in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," also starring Bradley Whitford, Nancy Travis, Rachel Ticotin, Jenna Boyd. Directed by Ken Kwapis, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is produced by Debra Martin Chase, Denise Di Novi, Broderick Johnson and Andrew A. Kosove, from a screenplay by Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler, based on the novel by Ann Brashares. Executive producers are Leslie Morgenstein, Alison Greenspan and Kira Davis; co-producers are Christine Sacani, Steven P. Wegner and Melissa Wiechmann. Kathryn Himoff, A.C.E., is the editor, John Bailey, A.S.C., is director of photography and Gae Buckley is the production designer. Music supervisor is Dawn Soler. Original score by Cliff Eidelman. Costumes designed by Lisa Jensen.

Currently in theatres, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. It is rated PG by the MPAA for "thematic elements, some sensuality and language."

www.sisterhoodofthetravelingpants.com / AOL: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants