Sock It To ‘Em getting ready to warm up campaign
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on November 10, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com The annual Sock It To ‘Em campaign is back and ready to collect socks for those in need with help from Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre and three school divisions.“This is our 23rd year of collecting stocks for the homeless and people in need, and we’ve collected 184,000 pairs of socks so far,” says campaign co-ordinator Gail Petrie.
She says last year, after a two-year hiatus while children were out of school because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to collect 6,000 pairs.
“Our program last year had to almost be a renewal and get back into things, but schools just stepped right in and did it for us, and it was wonderful,” says Petrie.
She says schools within the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division, Lethbridge School Division and Palliser School Division, along with Nord-Bridge Senior Centre, will be collecting socks for those who need them the most until Dec. 13, to be distributed just in time for Christmas.
Petrie says that even though the majority of the socks get distributed among organizations that help the homeless and people in need, the schools keep some for their students who might be in need.
She adds that year after year she gets pleasantly surprised, especially during times of hardship for many people, that they are still able to collect thousands of socks.
“With the economy being what it is, I always think numbers might go down, but it surprises me every year how much we can collect.”
She says it’s important to have warm socks during the winter months, especially for those who find themselves living on the street and having to walk everywhere.
“Socks are something that the homeless need. Their whole mode of transportation is walking, but we also have seniors that need socks, and we’ve got children that need socks.”
That’s why the campaign collects socks of all sizes, as well as specialty socks that help seniors with some medical conditions which some cannot afford.
Charlene Kocken, a social worker at Nord-Bridge Senior Centre, says some of her clients are living at the homeless shelter and she has recently given away socks to a few of them already.
“He saw socks in my office and said he has been walking all day long on his feet and really needed to change his socks. He said it’s a nice comfort feeling having a fresh pair of socks on his feet,” says Kocken.
She says last year they also donated socks to the Angel Tree campaign and are looking forward to doing the same this year to reach as many students, children and their families as possible.
Petrie says they distribute socks through multiple organizations in the city that help people who are either homeless or in need of a helping hand for other reasons.
“We give socks to the homeless shelter, soup kitchen, Woods Homes, Harbour House, Angel Tree and Streets Alive, and I also ask schools to keep socks for their students. I also keep socks mainly for the teenagers, as I get phone calls periodically through the years about teenage students who have holes in their socks and others are making fun of.”
Nord-Bridge also keeps socks for some of the seniors in the community that come to the centre who need them, and they accept monetary donations to purchase socks throughout the year.
Petrie says once the socks are collected at the various schools, they are brought to Nord-Bridge Senior Centre to create a sock mountain. Organizations that require socks for their clients are asked to come and collect them directly from the mountain.
“We want the representatives from each organization to come and collect the socks, we do not want to have to distribute them. Last year I had trouble getting rid of socks and I ended up driving around for a month with 1,000 pairs of socks in my car. So if they can come and collect the socks directly from sock mountain on Dec. 14 that will be great.” Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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