Students collected 5,633 pairs of socks for the Joy of Sox organization, which coordinates donations for outreach groups across 33 states.
Imagine 5,633 pairs of new socks ready to be distributed to homeless individuals who need them most.
Now, imagine those 5,633 pairs of new socks being collected by the nearly 1,000 seventh- and eighth-grade students at Harrington Middle School.
Finally, imagine those 5,633 pairs of new socks breaking the record for a single donation to the nonprofit Joy of Sox organization, which coordinates with outreach groups across 33 states to distribute socks to the homeless.
Actually, there’s no need to just imagine any of those things, as they were all reality at Harrington Middle School last week.
Officials from The Joy of Sox visited Harrington to present students with an official “World Record Banner” as officials collected the school’s generous donation.
According to school officials, the collection began as a way for the four houses at Harrington to earn points against one another in a fun way during the new “Spirit Week” activities at the school earlier this year.
While there were certain days to wear a specific color shirt or dress in superhero clothes, students were also asked to donate socks leading up to and throughout Spirit Week, to the point that October became “Socktober” at the school.
Leading the charge was the Harrington Middle School Student Council, with advisors Tracy Burlson and Kathryn Mitchell.
While Mitchell said organizers thought students might collect about 500 pairs of socks, no one was prepared for the more than 5,500 pairs that would eventually come to fills bags atop of bags in a large closet at the school.
“This was our first year collecting for Joy of Sox,” Mitchell said. “It’s pretty crazy.”
Mitchell also pointed to the school’s student council and student council president Graham Girone, saying his work was one of the biggest factors in the success of the collection drive.
“The student council played a major part in trying to organize and make posters and basically make sure the school gets the message that what we were doing here was not just a competition,” Graham said. “We’re helping people by collecting all these socks.”
To that point, also on hand at Harrington last week was The Joy of Sox founder Tom Costello, Jr. — or the “Chief Sock Person,” as he likes to call himself.
According to Costello, somewhere between 300 to 400 schools from around the country have held collection drives for The Joy of Sox in the past nine years, but no school has collected more than about 2,000 pairs of socks.
“Probably within the next week or so, we’re going to have most of these socks out on the street and on the feet of homeless people,” Costello said. “You guys are keeping their toes warm.”
Costello also asked students to never treat the homeless as if they were invisible, reminding them that even a simple greeting or conversation can help the homeless retain their self-esteem.
Costello repeated for students the words a homeless man once told him after a brief conversation — “Thank you for not looking through me. You gave me dignity.”
To learn more about the work of The Joy of Sox, visit www.thejoyofsox.org.
