Socktober

In anticipation of a year with Rotary that would be challenging for fundraising because of COVID and being the club president for the Rotary Club of Saginaw Sunrise, I started to think about what we could do to either raise money or help in some way in our community.

I get a publication monthly called BottomLine Personal and in the October issue there was an article entitled “Put yourself in someone else’s shoes”.  “Socktober” was suggested as a month long effort to get new socks to homeless people.  I thought immediately of the City Rescue Mission in Saginaw and called them to see if they had a need for socks and they responded that the need was always present and that they would gratefully accept any donation of new socks that we had.

I approached our membership with my idea and received an immediate response in monetary donations from members of our club to purchase the much needed socks.  In the meantime, Menard’s had a sock sale late September and some socks were purchased from them and the rest from Dollar Daze.  With the money collected and actual socks donated, we were able to purchase 1,000 pairs of socks to deliver to the City Rescue Mission.  We also were contacted by Jolt Credit Union as they wanted to donate $100 towards the “Socktober” event also which they will do at a later date.

On Thursday, November 5, Teresa Stitt from our club, our District Governor, Randy Ettema, Cathy Tafel, Assistant Governor and myself presented the mission with the 1,000 socks along with Cathy’s personal donation to the mission. Marcia Reeves, Public Relations Director from the City Rescue Mission was on hand to accept our donation.

Thanks to the support of our club, Jolt Credit Union and Cathy’s donation, we were able to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes with some warm socks for our homeless population in Saginaw County.
 
Paulette Lenk
President
Rotary Club of Saginaw Sunrise