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Through "Sock Wars" Cambie secondary students are ensuring more than 450 children less fortunate are provided with a pair of new socks every Christmas season.
Photo by Athina Nourali
Cambie’s ‘Sock Wars’ reach less fortunate
By Don Fennell
Published 12:21 PST, Fri December 17, 2021
Last Updated: 2:32 PST, Fri December 17, 2021
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Who hasn’t received a pair of socks for Christmas? But while many may take the gift for granted, Sock Wars aims to show how important a seemingly simple pair of socks can be to those less fortunate.
During the Christmas holiday season, students at Cambie Secondary School are building on what was originally a fundraising event to gather new socks and underwear for the homeless that entered the emergency wards at St. Paul’s and Vancouver General hospitals as well as Covenant House for youth.
The concept originated in 2010 when advanced life support paramedic Jeff Watts, who was working with student First Responder teams and the Health Science 12 program at Cambie and other Richmond schools, initiated Sock Wars. He’d seen first-hand the plight of the homeless—sockless or, among the more fortunate, socks full of holes.
In a friendly competition, students rallied to ensure that some of society’s most vulnerable people didn’t go without such a basic need, explains June Sanders, who teaches the Humanities 8 class at Cambie.
“We were able to provide emergency wards with enough socks to take them through a whole year, and then some.”
But while the inter-school competition eventually ceased, Cambie has continued the endeavour with grassroots organizations. A staff member led to a current partnership with KidSafe, a program for more than 450 vulnerable inner-city children, mainly elementary aged.
Like the adults, many of these children would come to school without socks or socks full of holes. But through their efforts, Cambie’s Sock Wars initiative has been able to commit 450 pairs of new youth-sized socks each year.
Cambie’s efforts also extend to assist Youth Unlimited’s Street Life Outreach Program on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, as well as several other communities in Greater Vancouver including Richmond. The outreach program provides a safe space for marginalized young people, many of whom are street-entrenched and/or participating in high-risk, street-level activities.
Now firmly solidified as a tradition at Cambie, classes compete to collect the most donations during a two-week fundraiser that kicks off with “Crazy Sock Day.”
“The last few years, the fundraiser has been organized by our Pathways program, with Grade 10 students taking the lead,” notes teacher Stephanie Paukov.
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