Sock It To Poverty Starts Up Again

Students bring in socks and underwear for Redemptorist Social Services.

Megan Kelley, Arts and Entertainment Editor|Oct 9, 2021

Messages in GroupMe being sent out. Big boxes of socks and underwear filling up. A fall break with no homework was at stake. This year if students reach the goal of 5000 pairs of socks or underwear, they get no homework over Fall Break. Starting on October 4, students bring in donations and drop them off in their designated spots.

 

Donating to those in need
Sophomore Lily Wilkin drops in some socks to the sophomore collection bin.
Collection for juniors
Juniors Brynna Fitzgerald, Claire Coats, Anna Golian, and Annie Stevens add together the totals of Friday’s Socks for juniors.
Juniors come in second place
Juniors Claire Coats, Brynna Fitzgerald, Emily Dierks, and Anna Golian finish adding the total to realize that juniors gained some ground on the sophomores and ninth graders.

S ock it to Poverty is a fundraiser where students bring in socks and underwear. The donations go to Redemptorist Social Services. The social service center assists families in need for clothing items, food, hygiene items and help with money if they need it. Stuco leader, Jennifer Brown-Howerton, has been running Sock it to Poverty for 14 years. 

 

Redemptorist Social Services is in need of socks and underwear. It is the least donated item to them. Resulting in the Sock it to Poverty fundraiser. For Brown-Howerton, what’s most important is helping people in need.

 

“Personally, for me it’s just helping people feel comfortable and just imagine when it gets cold outside or what it would be like to not have undergarments,” Brown said.

 

This fundraiser can be very competitive. The seniors buy  socks on their lunch breaks, juniors, sophomores and freshmen bring in socks they bought the night before. Each grade fights to be the grade that brings in the most socks. 

 

Junior Representative Anna Golian helps out with Sock It To Poverty. Student officers promote the fundraiser to their grade levels. Along with promoting socks, she brings in socks.

 

“I normally go out to the store and buy as many socks that I can at the lowest price and bring them in.”

 

Part of the Student Council’s job is to count the pairs of socks brought in. Each grade is held accountable for their sock count. Class president senior Grace Beelman is in charge of running the senior’s sock count.

 

“”Typically donations are counted during every grade’s study hall,” Beelman said. “This happens daily so we can announce totals every day and our final count will be out by the end of the day, today.”

 

By the end of Friday October 8, Seniors took the lead with 1413 pairs of socks. Runner up was Juniors with 992. Altogether the students brought in 3797 items.