It could have just stopped at socks. This year, Community Connections decided to expand an annual employee Sock Drive for seniors to include children and people with disabilities, and we asked the communities of Ketchikan and on Prince of Wales Island to join us. Our intent was to warm cold toes in our communities and bring holiday cheer to the individuals and families we serve.

What we couldn’t have known was the extent of the generosity our communities would extend and the extent of the need we would discover. Community businesses all over Ketchikan and Prince of Wales helped out as collection sites for socks and money to support the drive. We had enthusiastic support from First Bank and Ketchikan student, Tessa Salazar, dedicated her “Kid’s Cookies for a Cause” table to sell baked goods, raise money, and collect warm clothes to contribute. By the end of the drive, our communities had raised $17,000 and collected over 500 pairs of socks.

Because of your generosity, the Sock Drive has provided warm boots to foster children who arrived at a foster home with only the clothes on their backs, it has provided warm coats to children who were not going to have any presents for Christmas after both parents were laid off, and it has warmed over 1200 toes on a wide variety of feet. We found a profound need in our communities for warm winter clothes and the Sock Drive has made it possible for us to respond.

Thank you to the community members, businesses, volunteers and Community Connections employees who made this annual event a huge success. Your generosity blew our socks off, and we are happy to report that our communities are a warmer place because of it.