Last week, members of our Club sorted almost 1,500 socks and distributed them to the Homeless Prenatal Program, SF Police Department, SF Fire Department, and LavaMaeˣ.
Our Club has been sharing socks with our partners who support the homeless since Emergency Services Day in 2018 when we supplemented flower arrangements with socks and then shared them with our first responders after the event. The San Francisco Rotary Foundation has provided grants for this program. We have also solicited corporate donations and received many socks from Bombas -- some as part of their 1:1 match (for every pair of socks they sell, they give one pair to share with the homeless). Last summer, Bombas gifted an extra 3,750 pairs of socks to our Club to distribute in San Francisco.
The SF Police who work with Healthy Streets Operations Center report that socks are the most requested item when they work with our unhoused neighbors. Homeless Prenatal Program says that the families they serve always need socks. Last summer, our efforts replenished LavaMaeˣ sock stocks which had run out. They provide clean socks, hygiene kits, and showers to their clients.
Last fall, we paired some of our socks with hygiene kits donated by John and Susan Dean and masks donated by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office of San Francisco. Special thanks to the SF Rotary Foundation for their generous support of the socks project. Thank you to John and Susan Dean for storing socks and creating a safe space for a small group to continue sorting and sharing socks during COVID-19. Rotarians involved included Lisa Christian, Ann Daugherty, John Dean, Susan Dean, Mary Liu, and Jane Mermelstein. Through our efforts, our Club donated over 5,000 pairs of socks this year, and none were lost in the dryer.