Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Students at Bath Public School were so generous with their donations, they knocked the socks off their original goal to assist the homeless.
It just so happened that socks was what they were collecting.
On Friday the school wrapped up its campaign, which originally called on staff and students to donate footwear to Socks Napanee, which provides garments for homeless people. By the end of the week their campaign had grown to include the entire village of Bath.
Earlier in the month, Caroline Mackenzie of Socks Napanee dropped by the school to give a presentation about their cause to help launch the fundraiser.
“We set a goal of 800 pairs of socks,” said Jennifer Morrisey, a teacher at Bath Public School who organized the fundraiser. “We basically took 275 people in the building, times that by three figuring if each person brought in three pairs, we would get to 825. We rounded that down to 800 and we thought that was a lofty goal.”
It turns out that goal was the opposite, proving to be too easy as they ended up collecting over 1,600 pairs.
“After Day 1, we had 491 pairs of socks,” said Morrisey. “In one day we got more than half of what we needed. The outpouring from the community was amazing.”
Once they easily surpassed their goal of 800, Morrisey reached out on social media and encouraged residents from across Bath to chip in and see if they could hit 1,000. At last count, they had gathered 1,684 pairs to donate to Socks Napanee.
“We’re pretty proud of our Bath Knights and our community,” said Morrisey.
Along with starting a good deed, Morrisey was able to work the fundraiser into the curriculum. For the younger students it was a chance to work on their counting skills while sorting the socks while the older students were in charge of creating posters and writing announcements to help spur donations. It was also a chance to learn how not everyone is as fortunate as they are.
“One of my students asked me why socks, wouldn’t they want food for the food banks?,” recalled Morrisey. “Socks are a really important item that often is asked for at food banks and homeless shelters and they’re one of the least donated items. We talked about it in my class how you just don’t feel yourself when you’re cold, you’re wet and you’re tired and hungry. We take socks for granted. We put on a clean pair every morning.”
For people living on the street, that’s not always a luxury they can enjoy. They tend to go through socks quickly as well as they wear the same pair for weeks at a time.
Now thanks to some generous students, those in the community going through a tough time will have one less thing to worry about.
For more information about the cause, go to www.sockswarminghearts.com.