Kindergarten teacher Joe Koman said the idea to participate in Socktober was inspired by his wife Aubrey, who follows Kid President on social media. Kid President, played by 11-year-old Robby Novak in a series of YouTube videos, teamed up with media and production company SoulPancake to create Socktober.
According to Socktober’s website, Socktober looks to prove small acts of kindness like donating a pair of socks can make a difference in the lives of neighbors who may not have as much.
Koman was the perfect candidate to bring Socktober to Nisswa Elementary, he said, because every day he wears socks featuring Albert Einstein, superheroes, geese, pencils, anchors and more.
“If any teacher was going to lead a drive, it should be the teacher that never wears a plain pair of socks to school,” Koman said. “To the point where our morning routine is talk about the weather and then check out my socks.”
Koman was initially just going to have his class participate in the drive, but when he told principal Molly Raske about it, she said to think bigger and get the whole school involved. Each class brought socks in their respective sizes, and at the end of the month, the school had collected about 606 pairs of socks.
“It was neat to be able to tell kids that helping people can be simple too,” Koman said. “There’s many important things to do, but sometimes just a simple pair of socks can change somebody’s day.”
A teacher at Brainerd High School’s south campus knew her students needed some socks, so Koman brought some of the larger pairs to the teacher, who then passed them on to the students. Koman’s wife also teaches at the south campus.
“My wife said it was like Christmas,” Koman said.
The rest of the socks were brought to the Mid-Minnesota Women’s Shelter in Brainerd, which will be sharing the socks with the Alex and Brandon Child Safety Center, also in Brainerd.
“The lady who dropped them off said the same thing, that they were glowing like it was Christmas morning,” Koman said.
The older Nisswa Elementary students were able to understand the drive better than the younger kids, Koman said. He had to explain to his kindergartners not everyone can go to their dresser and pick out a pair of socks, which helped them understand.
“It kind of hit them, that ‘You mean not everybody does that?'” Koman said. “After that, they thought it was a pretty cool thing.”
Most of the socks collected for the drive ended up in Koman’s classroom, so during the month, he would take them out and dump them on the floor, so the kids could see how many socks were collected.
“That really seemed to catch their attention too,” Koman said. “After I did that, we always ended up with a few more pairs of socks.”
The highlight of the drive was in its simplicity, Koman said. It’s easy to throw a pair of socks into a shopping cart when you’re at the store, he said. He’s hoping to continue the charitable theme by collecting mittens in December and January.
“If there’s a need,” Koman said. “And I’m sure there is.”