Clothing. Shoes. Food. Diapers. Personal Care Items. Socks. The People’s City Mission hosted their annual Sock Drive during the month of February to collect socks and distribute them to the homeless.

When Social Studies teacher Elizabeth Rock came to Southeast, she brought the idea of participating in the sock drive with her.

“I figured it would be something I could do for my Civic Action Project, so I put it on in 2017 and we collected 773 pairs of socks,” Rock said.

Now, for the third year in a row, Southeast collected socks to donate to the People’s City Mission. Students and staff could donate new, used, and mismatched socks to the drive.

“I am happy to report that Southeast collected 810 pairs of socks for the People’s City Mission,” Rock said.

Southeast is not the only place that participates in the drive. There are many other schools and organizations around the city that donate. Every year, the citywide goal for the Sock Drive is around 10,000 socks. This year, the city’s citizens went above and beyond that goal.

“The numbers for the city-wide drive are still coming in but so far the various schools, businesses, and organizations involved in the drive throughout Lincoln have collected a total of over 11,000 pairs of socks to donate to the Mission,” Rock said.

All the new, used, and mismatched socks that Southeast members, as well as other Lincolnites, collected are going to a good cause, but that’s not all the Sock Drive benefits. The Sock Drive is a great learning experience for the students as well.

“I think students in our classes feel like they learn something meaningful about homelessness and poverty regardless of what we are collecting,” Rock said.

Good work Southeast!