This is really humbling. My undergraduate alma mater, Villanova University included my nonprofit, The Joy of Sox, in their Spring 2011 issue on service.
What started out as an attempt to help out at a soup kitchen in Philly has really taken off. And I’d like to thanks Father Peter for the introduction, and Mercedes Ott and Shawn Proctor for producing and writing the piece.
With only a little over six months of actual operation we have already given out thousands of pairs of socks to the homeless and needy in and around Philly, plus eight states and Afghanistan. We have had schools conduct sock drives, strangers donate socks, donations appear in the mail and on Pay Pal, and volunteers show up out of almost nowhere. We even had a resolution passed in Harrisburg by the state senate declaring Valentine’s Day as “National Socks for the Homeless Day.”
I can’t wait to see what the next six months brings, as we continue to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless, and the health problems that can be mitigated by something a simple as a pair of socks.
A big Thank You from me, and an especially big thank you from all those who benefited from new socks!!
