While Socktober is a national effort to collect socks for the homeless, students in the RISE (Reaching Independence through Structured Education) Progam at Union Ridge Elementary are making waves locally with their sock collecting efforts.
Many of the students in Stephanie Brown’s RISE class are on the autism spectrum. Their goal this Socktober is to collect 1,000 pairs of socks for the Council for the Homeless in Vancouver. Students take part in all aspects of the program. They deliver a donation bag to each classroom in the school and explained that the bag is for socks for the homeless. This is something that is hard for many of the students.
Each day, the RISE students walk around the school with a big wagon and collect any socks that have been brought in. Then the socks are sorted and the information is placed on a graph to track donations. All of their efforts for this program are part of their curriculum. Other things they have done to help with the project includes reading books about homelessness and colored posters to promote Socktober among other things. Socktober has been able to be used in many of the subjects the students learn.
Brown stated, “It’s been awesome to see the concepts starting to sink in. But my biggest drive is to show them that anybody and everybody can make a difference. We have some of the most impacted students in our district, and here they are doing something fantastic and wonderful.”
Socktober takes place during the entire month of October. If you are interested in making a donation, feel free to drop them off at the Union Ridge Elementry School Office (305 N. 5th Ave).
