Baker 4th-Grader Leads Sock Donation Effort to Aid The Homeless

UPPER ST. CLAIR, PA - Led by fourth grader Audrey Wetterau, Baker Elementary Students collected 2,207 pairs of socks for an initiative they called the Socks With A Mission Have a Heart sock drive. The Pittsburgh-area homeless community will reap the benefit of the charitable effort.

Audrey became inspired to assist the homeless community through Baker teacher Erik Wiesemann, who runs the school's All Wound Up Yo-Yo Club. The club for fourth graders has a long history of supporting nonprofits such as Blankets Over Pittsburgh, which aids the homeless. Wiesemann also founded Light in my City, an organization that provides lanterns and flashlights to homeless people.

“Upon hearing about the homeless here in Pittsburgh, she immediately – and I mean immediately... like that very day – went home and came up with her own organization to help Pittsburgh's homeless,” Wiesemann said. “We talked together about items that would be beneficial for the homeless, and she went out and made it happen.”

According to Socks With A Mission website Audrey immediately began working on a flyer for her first collection drive. After two or three weeks, she had collected 300 pairs of men's socks,
144 pair of men's underwear, 41 pair of women's socks, 181 packages of disposable washcloths and hundreds of other personal care items. And after learning that socks are the number one item requested by homeless shelters, Socks With A Mission was born.”

Audrey said she feels privileged to be helping and is determined to show her peers that they can make a big difference in the lives of others.

“It would be so hard to live that life,” Audrey said. “They have nothing, and we’re so privileged. We take so much for granted. And I can help make the world a better place, even by doing a small thing.”

““This project embodies the virtuous cycle of an ideal school-family connection,” Baker principal Patrick McClintock-Comeaux said. “Audrey, with the support of her family, put her inspiration into practice by holding a communitysock drive and forming their own charity. She then reconnected with Mr.Wiesemann to see first-hand how her generosity benefited those in need.”

For more information on Socks for the Homeless, click on the link.