Socks for the Streets 2021: thank you and a tally so far…
The Socks 4 Souls Canada team wants to give a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone who helped out with Saturday’s event.
Whether it was standing out in the cold receiving donations, managing our social media and marketing campaign, soliciting donations or organizing the caravan of volunteers that transported the socks from the Indie88 studios to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints in Ossington, this event couldn’t have happened without you.
The count so far…
We’ve now tallied everything for the drop-off event, and our grand total for Saturday alone is…
This is a truly fantastic one-day result, and we could not be more grateful to everyone who had a part in this. The importance of warm, clean socks for those experiencing homelessness increases dramatically during the winter, and we are astounded by the continued generosity that people across the GTA and Southern Ontario show every year.
This is especially true this year as, despite the difficulties we faced, and against all odds with COVID, we welcomed volunteers from across the GTA, Hamilton, and even Stouffville, who brought bags of new socks to warm the feet of those experiencing homelessness this holiday season.
While we stood out in the cold today catching up with old friends and meeting new ones for the first time, we were starkly reminded of the importance of a cozy pair of socks to keep your toes warm and dry while outside. We were only out there for a few hours, not countless days like the community we serve. It was humbling, and we are grateful that we can be conduits for others’ generosity.
Next steps
Because of the challenges we have faced over the course of the campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the grand finale of Socks for the Streets 2021 will take place sometime in January 2022.
As such, we’ll be keeping the fundraising page up for a little while longer so that those of you who haven’t had a chance to donate, can do so now.. Stay tuned for more updates as we get them!
Special thanks to:
- Indie88’s The Josie Dye Show, our ongoing partners for Socks for the Streets, who have worked so tirelessly to keep us in the public’s hearts and minds throughout this campaign, as they do every year. We would especially like to thank them for doing same-day thank yous on air to those who dropped off socks on Saturday, despite being unable to do the live broadcast
- Dedicated Board members and their families who volunteered on Saturday: Sylvia Marcos, Dyanne Ostrander, Aaron Farrell, Liz Howey, Pierre Barcik, and Jay Turnbull, who stood out in the cold December weather to collect socks and donations
- Our generous partners TipTap, who provided us with cashless donation machines to collect monetary contributions on Saturday
- The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints at Ossington – especially Jamie Gillis, Alex Bergantz, and Philip and Chase Barker, who are so graciously storing and helping us sort through all the sock donations, so that we can distribute them to shelters across the GTA in early 2022. Of course we couldn’t plan this important distribution without our Board Chair Chris Tang who led the whole liaison effort
- Feliciano and David Fernandes, who helped ferry this truly astounding sock collection to storage
- Every single one of you who donated, ran sock drives, or gave us shout-outs. You are helping keep people experiencing homelessness in Toronto warm, dry, and healthy this winter, and we cannot thank you enough for supporting our cause – keep an eye out for donation highlights…coming soon!
- …And finally, a special and heartfelt thank you to the anonymous Good Samaritan who kindly bought our volunteers coffee whilst we collected socks on a wet, snowy Saturday. We don’t know your name, but you are also a #sockstar!
We at Socks 4 Souls Canada hope that you all have a very happy holiday, and a prosperous and safe New Year. We’ll be in touch in January 2022 for the grand finale.
In the meantime, stay safe, and stay warm.
Your friends at Socks 4 Souls Canada