Socktober 2018

Thousands of people will receive new socks, thanks to Highland Elementary students.

Socktober began five years ago as a fifth-grade class at Highland Elementary project that collected 100 pairs of socks for the Hope Center in Bakersfield.

On Wednesday, the fifth-graders of Highland presented 5,018 pairs of socks to Hope Center, a faith-based nonprofit, charitable organization that provides food, clothing, household items and other resources to low-income individuals and families.

“ I am blown away at the awe inspiring response from your students” Bill Richert of The Hope center said. “These young and responsible citizens have proven themselves to be the future leaders in our Bakersfield community. Those of us who are adults can certainly take a lesson from their stewardship and the ownership they have for their community as they grow to be men and women. I want to pass on my congratulations to their families for ingraining in their lives the values of our great country. May they be blessed beyond measure.”

Gera Bahr, a fifth-grade teacher at Highland, said the Socktober project has grown in the past five years.

“So, every year there’s a new group of students that have heard what the previous year has done and they really try to build on it and make it a larger

project,” Bahr said. “Not just because they want it to successful, but because they know of how many people it’s going to help.”

More than 13,500 socks have been donated since Highland students began collecting socks.

“It’s pretty amazing and again, it’s a testament to these students and their desire to help those in our community,” Bahr said. “Our kind of motto for the year is to be goal setters and goal getters and we stressed that throughout the project. And these students did an amazing job and really did knock our socks off.”