What's Happening in Cougar Country

As October came to end on Monday, so did the Socktober sock drive at Lake Catholic High School.

Socktober, which is promoted by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, provides pairs of socks to those who are homeless. According to the Socktober website – happysocktober.com - each night in the United States, an estimated 600,000 people live on the streets.

“Socks are the number one thing needed, but the least donated items,” said Julie Tinik, who got involved in the initiative a few years ago in Cleveland, but then branched out to include Lake County.

This was the fourth year Lake Catholic students collected socks. After collecting 650 pairs in 2021, this year’s students donated 2,373 pairs. Last year, Tinik donated a total of 2,021 pairs from all of her collection sites.

Throughout the month there were two separate competitions to see who could donate the most socks – homerooms all competing against each other, and the four grades competing against each other. For the second year in a row, the Class of 2023 was the winner in that competition.

“It’s an absolute huge amount of socks, and it’s a credit to the generosity of all the students, parents, faculty and staff here at Lake Catholic,” said Kelly Wolf, Lake Catholic Visual Arts Department Chair and coordinator of the Socktober donation effort. “We almost tripled our donation from last year. It’s a blessing to see how willing to give our students truly are.”

Tinik was equally impressed.

“When I saw the total, I was crying,” she said. “I can’t thank Lake Catholic enough.”

This year, Tinik said she plans to get the socks to Project Hope for the Homeless in Painesville, Sub Zero Mission in Painesville, the City Mission in Cleveland and Forbes House in Painesville.