Rock the Socks returns to warm hearts and toes

MARQUETTE — Local high school students are bringing the community together to help with a clothing drive, but this isn’t your everyday clothing drive. ABC 10’s Sarah Mac has more on how these students want to help warm the hearts of local families and their toes.

What started as a classroom assignment quickly turned into a community endeavor. Rock the Socks returns next week to the Marquette area, thanks to students at Marquette Alternative High School.

I’d like to say that these students will “rock your socks off,” but they won’t. Instead they ask that you donate a brand new pair of socks, still in the packaging, and drop them off at any donation bin across town, like this one. They’ll take any size sock from infant to adult.

Students say that they got the idea when their Women’s Lit teacher, Cynthia DePetro, gave them an assignment to think of a way to help the community. After doing research, the teens found out something unexpected about clothing donations for the homeless or those in need.

Marquette Alternative High School Junior, Brianna Peterson says, “Mostly they were getting boots, and pants and, like, jackets, and they weren’t getting really like a lot of socks. So we decided actually to have a collaboration of things to help get socks for everybody.”

This is the fourth year the school has organized Rock the Socks. One student says that this is a great way to help because socks are affordable for most any budget, and are always needed.

Marquette Alternative High School Senior Nicholas Williams says, “It is easy because a pair of socks is cheap. You can get them relatively anywhere. It’s something that we need up here, and this is something that we do every year that brings people closer together, more like a family.”

Even though this sock drive has proven successful in the past, they refrain from setting a numerical goal. They want to get as many as they can, but they want people to know they can feel free to drop them off at the nearest participating school or business.

Marquette Alternative High School Teacher Cynthia DePetro says, “Anywhere they can get to drop these off. People just need to keep in mind that this is not a contest, it’s a collaboration, and so go to the nearest drop off spot and help those in need in our community.”

So this weekend when you are out at 3:00 a.m. grabbing your big TV or Christmas gifts for the family, grab an extra pair of socks to donate towards a local family. They may not be a Christmas gift your friends or family want, but they are a gift that someone in the community may desperately need.

Socks are collected next week, November 30th to December 4th.

Schools involved as drop off sites:

• Marquette Alternative High School
• Marquette Senior High School
• Bothwell Middle School
• Graveraet Elementary School
• Superior Hills
• Sandy Knoll
• MAPS Central Office
• Westwood High School
• NICE Elementary Schools
• North Star Academy
• Ishpeming High School
• Negaunee High School
• Gwinn High School
• Norther Michigan University School of Educaiton
• Father Marquette Middle School
• The Crayon Club

Businesses involved as drop off sites:

• YMCA
• UP Catholic Credit Union (all three branches)
• Select Realty
• Wattsson and Wattsson Jewelers
• Swick

For more information, or any questions, comments or concerns call Cynthia DePetro or Andrew Crunkleton at 906-225-4321