Sock It To 'Em

You probably don't recall, but in May we went to a homeless shelter with our small co-op group.

The girls and I were talking on our way home that day and decided to start trying to collect socks and underwear for the clothing ministry there.

As we were telling a friend of ours about it, she said "Oh, Sock it to me!" and, finally, a name was chosen for our endeavor.



We asked for permission to collect at Family Camp and it was granted. I went to the office to purchase an ad in the daily newsletter and they graciously ran it free all week.

The girls stood at the back of the auditorium before and after every service with their sign and collection bin.

One evening, I happened to see Allison as she got ready to grab the bin. She was wearing shorts and a pair of yellow and tan striped knee socks that were mine in high school. (Mom came across them and gave them to the girls a while back.) They didn't match any part of her outfit and I did a double-take. I said "You are not wearing those to church." She headed for their tent to change without saying anything but when she was almost to the tent I stopped her. "Are you wearing those because of the sock drive?" Of course. "Wow", I thought, "she's willing to dress weird in order to draw people's attention to the sock drive. How cool is that?"

Little did I know, Julianne had the gray plaid knee socks I wore in high school to go with her outfit. Well, not actually to "go with". She didn't match any better than Allison did. But I was so proud of my mismatched girls.

People have been amazingly generous. We have a huge box, the bin pictured above, and a couple store bags full of socks and underwear to take to the shelter. They are off to a successful start and have also been given permission to start collecting at our church. I love watching their excitement and enjoy the feeling that we are doing something tangible to help others.