With deer hunting season ramping up, MacGregor Collegiate Institute wants you to save your hides.

It's all part of a unique program the school offers to students. Clothing and textile instructor Penny Wilson explains.

"We offer a leatherworking program here at the high school where the kids learn how to work with leather to make mukluks, moccasins, and mitts," says Wilson. "It's a great opportunity for them to go into manufacturing and expressive arts, but we need leather to do it with."

She acknowledges not many hunters use the hide and the school would be more than happy to take it off their hands and reduce waste.

Wilson prefers using deer leather because it's soft and better to do bead-working than some of the other leathers.

She knows that MacGregor is a big hunting community. Here's how you can drop your hides off.

"It needs to be in a bag with the tag and a name attached so that we can use it. Your provincial tags should be attached to them. If you are not a provincial tag hunter, and you're a Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF Hunter), we would still love to use your product. We need your name and your MMF number. We will be making products out of that when we get it converted into usable leather."

Wilson says you can drop your hides off at the school Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

She outlines how using deer hides became part of the curriculum.

"I've been making mukluks, mittens, and moccasins for years now. The kids I teach saw I was working on a pair because I had brought them in for a beading lesson I had done with the Contemporary Indigenous Issues course. The kids said, 'That's so cool we should do that,' and I said, 'You know, you're right. We should.'"