University employee collects more than 2,000 socks to give to community members

The Office of the University Registrar wanted to make a difference on campus and in the community of Athens. The office decided to form The Committee Service Committee in January of 2018.

Since the committee began, they have sponsored food and clothes drives as well as gathered school supplies for local schools and partnered with the Red Cross and the Blood Mobile. In September, the committee decided to take a cause campus wide and the results surpassed all expectations.

Jessica Barton, committee member and records management specialist in the Registrar’s Office, had an idea to collect socks for a cause. She called her idea Socktember and got to work.

Barton sent out 40 Socktember boxes to offices throughout campus. The original goal was 500 pairs of socks. When collection day came, she was amazed to learn that she had surpassed that goal. The total number of pairs of socks donated by the Ohio University community was 2,022! She contacted her Registrar Office colleague, Terry St. Peter in the Veterans and Military Student Services Center to make sure these socks went to a special cause in Athens.

The socks will be donated to The Athens Area Stand Down.

"The Athens Area Stand Down is a community event that simply could not occur without the support and enthusiasm demonstrated by Jessica, the University Registrar’s Office, and the University community who came together to provide for those less fortunate in the area," said Terry St. Peter, volunteer/logistics chair, Athens Area Stand Down Committee. "The Socktember campaign has produced over 2,000 pairs of socks and will surely help our efforts to provide those without homes the resources they need to address their problems and begin to rebuild their lives.”

Barton said she is so thankful to her colleagues from across the University who collected and donated socks to make this Socktember an event that made a difference in our community.