At the end of last year, the Ross Medical Education Center Johnson City, Tennessee campus collected new, warm, and fuzzy socks for the less fortunate. While many are considering which holiday events to attend or what gifts to buy their children, many others are simply attempting to make a plan of how to stay warm through the cold winter months. Starting in the middle of November and going straight through to the end of December, students, faculty, and staff all participated in a Christmas Sock Drive.
Several different sizes and styles of socks were collected during the drive to ensure that men, women, and children would all benefit and feel like they had socks that they enjoyed. The campus collected around 75 pairs of new socks during the drive. They then were able to take them to a local organization known as Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness (ARCH).
Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness goes all over Northeast Tennessee to distribute clothing, food, blankets, basic hygiene products, and other basic necessitates a person may need. The purpose of this project was to ensure that anyone that may be homeless and stuck out in the cold weather could benefit from having thick, warm socks, in order to help eliminate some discomfort. Socks are one of the most sought after items that are collected inside of these types of organizations due to the harshness of the outside elements.
Once the collection was complete, the donations were taken to the local Appalachian Regional Coalition on Homelessness center in Johnson City so they could begin the process of delivering them to the less fortunate men, women, and children in the Northeast Tennessee region. Students and staff expressed their enjoyment of the event saying, “the sock drive was rewarding and made me realize just how fortunate I truly am,” “I like how we come together here at Ross to help our local community, even something simple as socks makes a difference,” and “doing the sock drive made me feel good. I really enjoy helping people.”