Virginia Cooperative Extension offices participate in ‘sole-warming’ charity sock drive

One of the top items on most homeless shelters’ wish lists is socks. 

That’s what Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent Ed Olsen was thinking about when he suggested organizing a sock drive to his unit coordinator in Henrico County, Kimberly Edmonds, right before the holiday season.

“At that time, 25 Extension offices had recently united to become Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Northeast Extension District,” Olsen said. “I was thinking we could partner on a service project and also turn it into a friendly competition as a way to build collaboration.”

Edmonds ran the sock drive idea by Northeast District Director Morris White, who jumped in with both feet.

“We were working to create a strong collaborative culture for the Northeast District, which is composed of offices serving a variety of urban and rural communities,” White said. “The sock drive was a perfect way to get everyone to coalesce around a project to serve the people in our district.”

Morris launched the sock drive as a “friendly, sole-warming” competition at the fall district meeting in October with a crazy sock competition. He challenged each office in the district to collect the most socks to donate to local charities of their choice. Because the offices have differing numbers of employees and serve varied numbers of Virginia residents, winners would be determined both by the total number of socks collected and by socks collected per capita – or how many socks they collected relative to the number of residents they serve.

Virginia Cooperative Extension units partnered with schools, 4-H clubs, Master Gardener and Master Naturalist chapters, local governments, community colleges, and parks and recreation offices, placing sock collection boxes throughout their service areas. They also promoted their efforts via social media, email, and by phone and in person, touching base with partners throughout the drive.

At the end of the month-long competition, 17 offices in the Northeast Extension District had amassed 4,700 socks for 19 service organizations. The recipients included homeless shelters, community health clinics, Boys & Girls Clubs, senior centers, family and community centers, and county social services departments.

Hanover County collected the most socks – 795 pairs – while Richmond County collected the most per resident at .025 pairs per person.

“It was beyond amazing to see the diversity of community members pulling together to donate an item anyone can use,” said Hanover County Unit Coordinator and Extension Agent Laura Maxey-Nay. “When this sock drive was first proposed, I thought it was kind of silly to just be collecting socks. Then, the more I thought about it, my initial thinking just shows how privileged I am to be able to afford socks. I’ve been more mindful of how cold my feet get even in my house without socks. I can’t image not having my feet protected. This was a great effort and a prime example of how connected Virginia Cooperative Extension is to our community and their needs.”

“Participating in the sock drive brought us together in a service-minded way,” said Senior Extension Agent Wendy Herdman, who serves both Westmoreland and Richmond counties. “We were able to connect with people and organizations to pool our efforts to make an impact.”

For Paige Thacker, senior Extension agent and unit director for Virginia Cooperative Extension in Prince William County, one of the greatest outcomes of the sock drive was receiving a note of thanks from the director of a local homeless shelter.

“Thank you so much for collecting the socks and dropping them off yesterday,” the note read. “Who would think that socks are that important? For our homeless shelter guests they surely are. People come in with socks that are wet, worn for several days, too thin – and they don't have an opportunity to wash them. You truly made a difference.”

Virginia Cooperative Extension was established in 1914 and is a partnership between Virginia’s two land grant universities: Virginia Tech and Virginia State University. Today, Extension operates out of 107 offices, 11 Agricultural Research and Extension centers, and six 4-H centers across the commonwealth. Extension agents, specialists, and volunteers work to assist farmers, empower youth, guide responsible resource management, and advance the well-being of all Virginians.