It’s #Socktober time again!
The month of October has been set aside for a donation drive to collect donations of new socks and underwear for individuals with developmental disabilities in Findlay and its environs.
This laudable project is being led by a nonprofit outfit, All Developmental Differences and Abilities Parent Teacher Community Organization (ADDAPTCO), whose singular mission is to bring people together with a common goal of supporting, advocating, and empowering the special needs community.
As a nonprofit organization, ADDAPTCO is embarking on another donation drive dubbed the ‘Soctober time’. The organization is calling on everybody to join the #Soctober movement in Findlay to collect donations of new socks and underwear throughout the month of October. This forms part of the organization’s plans to bring back the smiles on the faces of people within the special needs community.
Current list of collection locations includes Jefferson Primary School, FCS Preschool, Impact Credit Union (Findlay East & Findlay North), and Arlington Elementary School. However, the organization says their doors are still opened for schools and businesses within Findlay and its environs who are willing to help in the collection of the new socks and underwear.
As an annual event, the ‘Soctober time’ has been pretty successful, collecting around 800 pairs of socks plus some underwear. Niki Galloway, the Public Relations Officer of ADDAPTCCO said the organization has not set a specific target but “we are generally able to supply most of our local schools with socks and still have enough to distribute to City Mission and Hope House”.
“As a whole, our organization works to benefit students throughout Hancock County. This particular event benefits more than just our special education families. We donate the socks and underwear to our school nurses first because many times they have students that really need to be given new socks and/or underwear throughout the school year. Any overflow of items collected are then given to our local homeless shelters”, she added.
On how ADDAPTCO is engaging the business communities and donors in general to ensure a successful event, The Public Relations Officer noted that “the majority of our collection comes from our school families. In the past we have received some monetary donations from local organizations so that we could purchase additional socks. While we haven’t specifically engaged the business community, we would be more than happy to accept donations from local businesses”.
ADDAPTCO is counting on the general public in Findlay and its surrounding areas to ensure a successful 2022 #Soctober drive.
As the organization noted, the Covid-19 Pandemic affected previous editions of the event because schools were not having in person sessions which made it difficult to collect donations. ADDAPTCO also lost volunteers during Covid because the organization had to put all of its events on hold.
“This year we are returning stronger and hoping to have our most successful event with the help of the general public”, Niki Galloway concluded.
