Hannah's Socks • warm feet, warm hearts

Thanks to Janet Dickinson, Service and Community leader at Long Valley Middle School in New Jersey, and the students and staff who helped collect 2,145 new pairs of socks!

As part of their YES WE CAN service program, they donated the socks in Hannah's name to Bridges Outreach, an organization that helps the homeless in the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Janet said, "We look forward to helping Hannah again this coming school year!"

You can check out more pictures of the students on the Hannah's Socks Flickr page.

Would you like to collect socks for Hannah? Learn how!

Today the Hannah's Socks team wants to send out thanks to three outstanding groups:

• Way to go Robert and everyone involved with the Terrace Park HS Alumni Association in Cincinnati: They host an All Class dinner every June, and this year they held a Sock Hop the night before the dinner. They collected 125 pairs of socks
• JD of Berne, Indiana, and his church camp collected 3,000+ pairs of socks. Next, JD wants to engage his school in a Sock Drive
• Bailey of Toledo had a skating party for her 10th birthday and instead of presents, she asked everyone to bring socks. She collected 500 pairs

Inspiring stories to start the week! Do you want to help? Learn how fun and rewarding it is to organize a Sock Drive at your church, school, or business.

Two leaders from Hannah's Socks had quite an exciting time last week!

As a "local winner/media winner" for Northwest Ohio Jefferson Awards, our co-founder Doris Turner traveled to Washington D.C. to represent her region and be recognized along with a bevy of other people doing wonderful things from all across the United States. She was joined by our Vice President, Keith Johns.

Doris addressed the crowd of hundreds of people on Monday's Opening Night Dinner (pictured below), and told Hannah's Story to the audience. The next day, she and Keith visited with Senator Sherrod Brown in his office on Capitol Hill, then enjoyed an Oscars-type gala Tuesday evening where National Jefferson Awards recipients were recognized -- including Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker; Goodwill Industries CEO Jim Gibbons; NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha; and NBA player Tyrus Thomas, among many others.

You can view photo highlights on the Hannah's Socks Flickr page.

We had a special treat at our recent Hannah's Socks night at Toledo Mud Hens: These fine gentlemen came out to join our team!

Pictured above is the Lake Flyers U10 Travel team. The kids are from the same region that was recently ravaged by a tornado, so we reached out to invite them to the game. Their parents all brought sock donations, and the Hens allowed the team to watch the game-ending fireworks from the dugout.

Thanks to all involved!