MILL CREEK — What to do with hundreds of pairs of socks? How about 4,000?
Give them away, of course, which is what Matt Hammerstrom planned on. He just didn’t anticipate the scale of the problem.
“I have this massive pile of socks I’m digging through in my kitchen,” he said last week.
Hammerstrom, who works as a surveyor and with his wife owns Woodinville Florist, had a moment of inspiration the morning of Oct. 31.
“I was sitting around and I had cold feet,” Hammerstrom said. “I went and got a nice warm pair out of the dryer.”
He had heard about Socktober, the four-year-old charity launched by Brad Montague (the creator of the “Kid President” videos) to provide clean socks to homeless people.
Why not do it himself, he thought. October being almost over, he settled on “Toevember,” and created a page on Facebook, facebook.com/sockssavelives.
“I made it public on Facebook so I wouldn’t chicken out and not do it,” Hammerstrom said.
The page went viral, with word spreading throughout the region. Other people, strangers, stepped forward to collect socks or donate some of their own.
One of those strangers was Claudia McClain, of McClain Insurance Services in Everett.
She saw the page, thought it looked professional, and offered to help.
“I said, ‘You’re looking for south Everett drop-off locations. We have a video sign right next to Costco,’ ” McClain said.
McClain then highlighted Hammerstrom’s sock drive in her newsletter to customers, and encouraged them to consider supporting Toevember.
The socks came pouring in … more than 1,500 pairs.
It’s what McClain did next that made a world of difference.
Her agency sponsors Everett’s summertime “Cinema Under the Stars” program. A few years ago, concurrent with a showing of the movie “Happy Feet,” she contracted with Utah-based Lin Manufacturing to make penguin-shaped socks as freebies for kids at the movie.
She went back to Lin and asked to buy 3,000 pairs.
“They threw in an additional 396 pairs,” McClain said.
Then Lin Manufacturing’s staff upped the ante again.
“Their employees picked out of overstock, found nice women’s and children’s socks as well,” McClain said.
Total haul: 3,820 pairs of donated socks. McClain called Hammerstrom to have him come pick them up Dec. 1.
She didn’t tell him how many there would be.
“I had 1,600-1,700 pairs I’d collected before that,” Hammerstrom said. “I figured that would bump us up to 2,000.”
“It was amazing,” Hammerstrom said.
He’s since delivered socks to Cocoon House, Take the Next Step in Monroe, and both the men’s and women’s Everett Gospel Missions.
He said part of his original impetus was being annoyed at all the negativity he saw on Facebook.
“I wanted to see if there was something positive I could do,” he said.
It’s been a logistical challenge at times, and Hammerstrom admitted he hadn’t completely thought through his plans when he started the drive.
McClain said she was taken by Hammerstrom’s drive and sincerity.
“What warms my heart is here’s one guy who has an idea and just acts on it and doesn’t really know where it’s going to take him,” she said.
Nearly 4,000 pairs of socks later, Hammerstrom said he’ll do it again next year. In Toevember.
“I’ll keep doing (Toevember),” he said. “The Socktober people can keep their month.”
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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