By Abbie Preston, Staff Reporter
Walking miles to a destination is difficult, especially without socks. This unfortunate situation is a reality for many homeless people across the northeast, which is why the African American Student Union (AASU) and Key Club chose to host a charity event to collect socks.
The drive ran from Jan. 10-21 and they were able to collect 300-400 socks. The donations went to the Youth Service, Inc (YSI) of Philadelphia, a non-profit organization that offers support to Philadelphia youth and families. Christopher Brown, adviser of AASU, chose to work with YSI because of their focus on assisting teenagers.
“The Youth Service Incorporated is dedicated to strengthening the family unit and helping at-risk teens and promoting child safety. Those are some values for our club that align with (AASU),” Brown said.
Since this year is the first time AASU organized a sock drive, they have had to navigate many challenges. AASU reached out to various organizations within the T/E community, and reached their capacity of donated goods. Their solution was to reach out to a larger community and partnering with YSI. Although Brown believes had to manage these difficulties, the benefits outweighed the challenges.
“We are very grateful and gracious to the community that we are able to support, and we have tons and tons of socks that will go to those that really need them,” Brown said.
The event achieved its goal, gathering enough socks for each person in the homeless shelter to have multiple pairs. Because of its success, AASU will look to host more winter drives in the future. AASU 11th grade executive Jaela Eaton appreciates all the people in Conestoga’s community that were able to donate to the cause.
“It’s great to have a successful soft drive that helps someone that might not have something as simple as socks,” Eaton said. “It was really nice to see that people want to give and that people want to participate in something like this.”
Abbie Preston can be reached at [email protected].
