The Footprint of Sock it To Me A Story That Will Warm Your “Sole” BY AMY FOREMAN-PLAISANCE
T he magazine recently asked me about the beginnings of the Sock it To Me Sock Drive, which is now 20 years old. I am the retired owner and founder of Baton Rouge Parents Magazine and the “mistress of the socks” for the Sock it To Me Sock Drive. They wanted to know: why socks? Here’s the story. While in a Baton Rouge emergency room with my son, Blake, waiting to be called back to an examining room, I introduced myself to a couple, who were also waiting. I can still remember their names to this day, Ryan and Samantha. They told me they were homeless and slept behind the Walmart on O’Neal Lane. It was very cold outside that day, and they had come to the emergency room for treatment for a foot ailment. Ryan's socks were wet, like his shoes. He said he had sores and blisters on his feet. Being able to look into his eyes, I grew more upset by the minute. How could I not help? It made me think about whether or not I could make it on the street. Could I find the strength to humble myself and look for help? The couple had no family and only the friends they met in the same situation. Could I make it? I told myself that I would not make it on the streets of Baton Rouge. At that moment, the thought of offering a simple pair of socks must have been a God thing. There is wisdom in the old saying: “See a need, fill a need,” a quote from Mel Brooks in the movie, The Robots . So, I said, God, show me how. And He did.
Socks are something that most of us never have to think twice about. When you get dressed, you open your drawer (or the clothes dryer in my household) and pull out your comfy, warm, and favorite colored pair of socks. But those who don’t have a home and nowhere to wash their socks can sometimes walk up to 10 miles daily to find just the bare necessities while sometimes wearing old shoes that are not the correct size and socks that are worn out, dirty, and stiff. The homeless crisis in our city has escalated to be a more significant issue than when I spoke to the couple in the emergency room years ago. In Louisiana,
the number of people without homes or those living on the street is expected to rise to 11 thousand by 2030. Baton Rouge Parents Magazine is one of the many groups that organize a sock drive across the country, maybe even one of the oldest and longest continually running sock drives. To date, we have collected and distributed over 1 million pairs of socks, thanks to the generosity in our community. I am so proud of Baton Rouge for making a substantial social impact in our city with just one pair of socks at a time. Our mission is to provide warmth and protection to those in need through the sock drives we conduct in the community. Baton Rouge Parents Magazine , a division of Family Resource Group, went on to create the Family Resource Group Foundation, a nonprofit for the community work we do yearly. The Sock it To Me campaign was one of the first events added, and socks have been collected for 20 years. Some say new socks can be more critical than food since many people experiencing homelessness and are low- income can access soup kitchens and pantries. Every year, I get so excited with the amount of donated and unbelievably cool socks we collect: athletic crew socks, fuzzy socks, funky socks, science socks, athletic socks, Sasquatch socks, cat socks, bee socks, and space glow-in-the-dark socks. The core to reaching our mission is through sock drives conducted in the
36 SEPTEMBER2024 | BRPARENTS.COM
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