Students at St. Joseph’s College School have eclipsed a giant milestone for the vulnerable population in Toronto.
The all-girls Catholic school — located near Bay Street and Wellesley Street West — recently collected and donated 542 pairs of new socks to the Socks 4 Souls organization.
Running every December for the past nine years, the initiative was paired with a Christmas market hosted by the school’s student council earlier this month. Attendees could choose to donate $5 or two pairs of socks to support the cause.
Monica Godin, the school’s chaplaincy team leader, estimates that St. Joseph’s has dispensed more than 4,000 pairs of fresh socks to the less fortunate since the fundraiser began.
“A lot of campaigns have happened here over the years — but this one has been really great,” she told TorontoToday. “We know winter is harsher for people who are unhoused. This could be any one of us at any time. We’re part of this community, so for Toronto to care is for us to care.”
Socks 4 Souls was founded by Sylvia Marcos, a St. Joseph’s alumnus and medical doctor who noticed many emergency room visits were attributed to foot infections — often because impoverished patients didn’t have access to clean socks.
The charity, which aims to continue expanding throughout Ontario and across Canada, claims there are more than 10,000 homeless people in Toronto on any given night.
The initiative has helped numerous foundations since its inception, and Mustard Seed — a drop-in centre on Queen Street East — will be the recipient of all 542 pairs of new socks collected by St. Joseph’s.
“It’s a high demand item and the least donated — their greatest need is socks,” Godin said. “They said patrons were coming in and their feet were wet. These folks don’t have a dryer, so they need to be able to put on clean, dry socks to maintain good foot health which can hopefully attribute to overall better health outcomes.”
An educator and chaplain with the school for 26 years now, Godin has been blown away by the passion and commitment exhibited by her students who work hard to make the fundraiser a success year after year.
The cohort even bakes cookies every week for Out of the Cold Foundation.
“It’s very gratifying,” she said. “There’s so many of our neighbours that our students and staff see since we’re a downtown school. We walk by people experiencing homelessness every single day. We don’t know them by name or their backstory, but we know they’re vulnerable and struggling — so we want to support them.”
