Hillcrest students collect lots of socks for Barrie's homeless

Students in Ann Stephenson's grade 5/6 class have presented more than 200 pairs of warm winter socks to Barrie Out of Cold. 

The students organized a sock drive for Barrie's homeless after reading a news article on BarrieToday.com in media literacy class.

Carol Forget, director of operations for Barrie Out of the Cold, was at the school Friday morning to pick up the socks and chat with students. 

"You should always give," Forget told them. "By collecting socks you are helping many, many people."

Forget said the organization is pleased that individual schools get involved because they couldn't begin to purchase the number of socks they would need this winter.

Teacher Stephenson beamed with pride as her students clutched the new socks, ready to hand them over to Forget.  

"We collected over 200 pairs of socks.  We lost count. The students are so proud of themselves and I'm proud of them too," said Stephenson. "It's great to give back to our community in Barrie and it teaches students to realize the world is bigger than the school."

Grade six student Kira, 10, says the sock drive made everyone feel good because they were helping out their community.

"We thought that the homeless people might have really wet feet at the end of the day and that it might be cold outside so we thought nice, warm, thick socks would help them," said Kira.

If you want to donate to Out of the Cold , Forget says they're in need of sample size deodorants and money for the facility's biggest expense:  dry cleaning the dozens of blankets used every night.

For more information visit barrieoutofthecold.org.