As the season of giving approaches, the Jewish Student Union announced the beginning of a sock drive in collaboration with Avalanche’s Attic, lasting Nov. 4 to Dec. 4.
Launched in 2023 by counselor Erin Isaacs, Avalanche’s Attic is a resource for students in need located in room 6-204, where clothes and other resources donated by students are available for anyone to take home.
Partnering with the newly established JSU, Isaacs is working alongside assistant principal and JSU sponsor Erin Mandell in hopes of collecting and supplying socks to students and families with limited access to clothing, a resource often overlooked in clothing donations.
“We want to make sure that we’re not just filling the bigger need of things that are very common like shirts and pants,” Mandell said. “We want to fill those smaller gaps of items that may not always be recognized because we want to support the community tenfold. We want to cover everything.”
Because it is the first drive held by the JSU, no goal has been set, but Mandell and student officers still encourage students to donate what they can.
“A lot of people have [socks] but a lot of people don’t have them. They’re not very expensive, so it’s very easy to get them to donate,” JSU vice president Allison Raica said. “And it’s not just for kids, but it could be for adults or teenagers. It’s a very wide range of an audience.”
At the end of the drive, the socks will be collected and the majority will be sent to Avalanche’s Attic, where they will be accessible to all students. Partnering with Angel Tree, a Salvation Army program established to give clothes to children in need during the holidays, the remaining socks will be sent to local charities for those in need.
“It’s another way for [students] to see how when they put forward the effort at their school to support the community that anything can come out of it,” Mandell said. “Taking a chance on even doing something small can really turn out to be something right.”
Sock Box drop off locations can be found at the front office and at all home basketball and soccer games.
