SNOW CAMP, N.C. (WGHP) -- The Alamance Burlington School System is celebrating its 25th anniversary and students at Sylvan Elementary are joining in.
They made the month of October "Socktober." Students were encouraged to bring in socks of all sizes as a way to help celebrate the big anniversary.
Principal Elizabeth Fogleman says it's all about giving back. "We decided to partner with Ronald McDonald House, Christmas Cheer, because ABSS all the schools send families to Christmas Cheer, and the homeless shelter and give back to our community because we were talking to kids about responsibility. And so we were able to teach them how to give back and be responsible at the same time," she said.
She was hoping to get each class to donate 25 pairs of socks. But what happened really surprised her. "We had a total of 3,450 socks that were donated to our school from the students, from the community. Parents really helped support their children to teach them to give back and, and what the importance of it is behind it," she said.
The students loved the friendly competition and were excited to see the total number collected. That was especially true for Abigail Brooks's third-grade class, who donated the most socks!
"We were all excited. Every time somebody brought in socks, they wanted to know right away. How many do we have? How many do I have? So sometimes I would turn it into like a math problem and I'd be like, okay, you guys add it. And I want to see. And so they would be able to add it and then tell me, and we kept track and they were really involved and super excited to do it," Brooks said.
Paisley Duncan, who is in Ms. Brooks's class said it was fun to watch the socks add up. "We started by collecting lots of socks and we brought in lots of them. Our goal was to get 25 and we got 100. Then our goal was 200. But then when I came in this morning we had 400," she said.
Sylvie, the school mascot, and Socksquatch, from the Burlington Sock Puppets, helped all the students gather all the socks and celebrate. Even in their excitement, the meaning of the competition wasn't lost. "It made me feel happy for the other people because they were homeless, and their feet were getting tortured when they were homeless because they were outside," Sophiya Daniels, a third grader, said.
"In my heart... It made me feel happy." Sophiya said. Because she and her friends were helping those who need it most.
It was just that simple.
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