Sock Mountain rises to add warmth to community

By Lethbridge Herald on December 15, 2022.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Park Meadows Elementary School Grade 5 students Jett Dingman, Lily Rothe and Carter Crabb pass socks to Santa to be distributed to those in need after helping to creating Sock Mountain Thursday as part of the Sock it to ‘em campaign.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Sock it to ‘Em campaign has come to an end, yielding over 5000 pairs of socks donated and more to be purchased which will be distributed among those most in need. 

Campaign trailblazer Gail Petrie said the total count for the 22-year annual campaign has reached 123,000 pairs of socks thanks to the 5000 collected this year. 

“We had some financial donations that we did not have time to use yet to purchase more socks, so we will be over 5000 pairs, maybe even close to 5500 or 6000 pairs of socks,” said Petrie. 

She said that even though she did not have a specific count from each school division, there were a couple of schools that were worth mentioning. 

“A small school in Pincher Creek collected 400 pairs and Assumption school, which is a small school with just over 200 kids, collected 1000 pairs of socks,” said Petrie. 

She said some of the schools in rural areas kept some socks in their communities, which were not counted in the 5000 pairs, and therefore the big total is even bigger. 

The socks were collected from the different school divisions and brought to Nord-Bridge Senior Centre on Thursday where volunteers and a few students from Park Meadows Elementary School created Sock Mountain. 

Representatives from Streets Alive and YWCA Lethbridge attended the event to collect socks from sock mountain to later distribute them among their clients. 

Streets Alive director of administration and finance, Pieter Van Ewijk, said the socks collected will help them immensely as they distribute 60 to 80 pairs of socks per day. 

“Toques and gloves are important in winter, but we all tend to take socks for granted. When you start your day out with a nice, clean, warm pair of socks it goes a long way and it’s a mindset, and it is for the people we serve as well,” said Van Ewijk. 

External relations director of YWCA Lethbridge, Cat Champagne, said the socks they receive will help their clients not only at the Harbor House shelter but also those in their women’s residence. 

“With the weather dropping like this, we are always looking for cold weather donations, so it is good to have socks as they seem to go so fast,” said Champagne. 

She said they also have their Stockings of Hope program going right now and a lot of their participants have asked for socks in their wish list. 

“With these socks, we will be able to fulfill that and put some socks in there,” said Champagne. 

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