Hannah's Socks • warm feet, warm hearts

Saturday, September 8 was Perrysburg Youth Soccer Association's opening day. Cristy Seely, vice president and chair for opening day, met with the coaches and organized a sock collection for our organization. Cristy had told me that there would be about 800 kids participating. "There are close to 70 teams grades K through 12," she said.

I remember thinking that if every child brought just one pair, we would be closer to reaching our goal for the Cherry Street Mission and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
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I'm amazed every day at what Hannah's Socks is accomplishing. It took Hannah to open my eyes to see how simple being "good" is. She's sorting out socks as I type this. She asks me a lot of questions about the world, about the war, about people who are struggling. I spend too much time over-thinking the answers to her questions.

Just this morning, while sorting a pile of kids' socks, she said, "What if every person in the world gave us a pair of socks. Wouldn't that be nice, Mommy?" I answered, "Yes," and kept working on Hannah's Socks' business.

Then from where she sat in the office, I heard her singing quietly to herself, "All you need is love... do-do-do-do-do... all you need is love, love... love is all you need...."

Once again 6-year-old Hannah was showing me, whether she knew it or not, just how simple it is to care, to give, to be good. I truly believe she will forever change the world.

If you can help Hannah spread the message of Hannah's Socks, please click here to contact us today. We would love to hear from people who know how we can help shelters in their town, or from people who are willing to start sock drives in their schools, in their businesses, or in their cities.

It's our plan to reach out nationally. We need a lot of support to do this. Will you help? All you need is love :)

The "Gecko" class from Apple Tree Nursery School has worked hard to help us get to our goal of 10,000 socks by year's end. Teacher Shelly Gonyer and her amazing class collected 100 pairs of socks for the Hannah's Socks organization. "This is amazing," Hannah said. "We're going to have socks for everyone who needs them." Hannah was quite impressed with the Geckos!

They also helped Ms. Shelly make the "clean mud" for a make-n-take station at our Picnic & Fundraiser earlier this month. If you didn't make it to the Picnic, you've got to make some mud for your kids! It's so neat and a lot of fun and you can find the recipe on the Picnic Highlights page.

Thanks so much Shelly Gonyer and her Gecko class. They're helping warm the feet of many, many people in need.

Vic and I visited the Hanham Unit of the Boys & Girls Club last week. We met with Tom Waniewski, Director of Resource Development. It only took us a minute to see Tom's commitment to the children served at the four Toledo area clubs. We saw children between the ages of seven to eighteen learning, smiling, laughing, playing, and creating. Professionally managed, the clubs take pride in being "The Positive Place for Kids." Vic and I witnessed this firsthand, and we were very impressed! We have agreed to partner with the Boys & Girls Club by providing them with new socks.

There is much more to know about this wonderful organization. Please visit them at www.bgctoledo.org.

...it's important to solve community problems." This is a quote from today's Toledo Blade. As I continued to read the story my son interrupted and asked me why was I smiling so big. I called all 8 children into the room and read the story to them and we talked about the importance of helping and reaching out to fellow citizens. All of them had their own ideas of what they could do to help even more.
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Lil Porter and Andrea Glesser with the Wood County Educational Service Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, recently made their own Socks Box and asked fellow employees to Care, Share, Give a Pair! Read more »

Another busy week for Hannah's Socks! Vic and I attended several events on behalf of our burgeoning non-profit organization. One of the businesses we visited, Principle Business Enterprises, is in Dunbridge, Ohio — you can see it from I-75 near the Haskins/Luckey exit. They make Pillow Paws, high quality footwear to the health care market.
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This afternoon as we leafed through the mail, Vic and I were surprised to see a letter addressed to Hannah. She was still in school, but being the curious type, we went ahead and opened it. It read:

Dear Hannah,
On behalf of Kohl's Department Stores, Scholarship Management Services and your community, let me be the first of many to say CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected as a Store-Level winner in the Kohl's Kids Who Care youth volunteer recognition and scholarship program. Read more »

The anonymous donor that offered to buy a pair of socks for each person that joined the Sole Patrol has dropped off 69 pairs of men's, women's and children's socks. We're so excited to continue helping our partner shelters even as the temperature rises. Thanks to the generous donor and to all of you who signed up to be a member of Hannah's Sole Patrol!
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Perrysburg students, teachers and paraprofessionals continue to amaze me! Under the guidance of Ms. Lisa and Ms. Gail, Toth Elementary pre-schoolers — children as young as three years old — donated a 'pile-of-pairs' to Hannah's Socks last week.
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