Eastside homeless get help from sock drive

 

A total of 1,200 pairs of socks were gathered during the Together Center's March Sock Drive for use by homeless men, women and children on the Eastside. Most homeless people need to dispose of one pair of socks each week due to lack of laundry facilities and heavy use.

The organization's initial goal was to collect 480 pairs of socks for 40 people. With a pickup of more than 650 pair of socks from Alexander, Morford & Woo in Seattle, the total quickly was increased.

“Together Center’s drive will also now provide socks to Tent City as well, where 90 people are in residence,” noted Sondra Sciola, Together Center’s operations coordinator and the leader of the drive.

Sammamish resident Sam Alexander, a partner in Alexander, Morford & Woo, a Brown & Riding Company and an insurance firm now operating in Seattle, said he sees the homeless sleeping in Seattle doorways every morning.

"When I was recovering from a health event, people provided food and transportation and more.I wanted to provide the same kind of help to our homeless neighbors,” Alexander said.

Word spread and other groups joined the drive as well, including Leadership Eastside, Arden Realty and Assistance League of the Eastside. Together Center planned a competition to see which firm could collect the most socks, with the winner getting a pizza. However, money for the pizza instead was used to buy more socks.

Alexander added that employees at his firm won $160 from a lottery ticket and donated that money to the sock drive, too.

Together Center is a nonprofit agency that operates a regional human services campus in Redmond. Services include shelter, medical and dental care, child care assistance, youth and family counseling and more.

More information is available at 425-869-6699 or at www.togethercenter.org.

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