Pair collecting socks for vulnerable population in Winnipeg

Two women are being the hands and feet of a Winnipeg sock drive.

2020 Warm Feet was created by Sheilah Lee Restall and Laura Hofmeister to show their love for all of Winnipeg's residents. Collecting socks at 53 Winnipeg locations, the women will be evenly distributing the donated socks to centres dedicated to helping the homeless population.

"To some extent, it is shocking once you start looking into to it to understand how many of these shelters we have, which means the need that exists in Winnipeg. It really drives home the point of why we are doing this," Restall says. "There is a lot that I am discovering. Even just the other day I found out about a women's shelter that I was not aware of so we added it to our list."

As it is the inaugural year of the drive, Restall says they do not know how many pairs of socks they will wind up with but hopes to receive 20,200 pairs. 

The organizer is optimistic after seeing how many Winnipeg locations offered to be drop off locations.

"I spent all summer cold-calling various organizations and businesses. It looks like my hard work paid off."

The drive is also being done virtually. She says people can donate socks by purchasing them online.

Restall believes her drive is one of the larges ones to happen in Winnipeg. Restall says their decision to start the drive so early in the year came from an observation: how cold Winnipeg can get in the winter.  

"I kept thinking about how cold it was in December and I was like 'we need to fix this."

Wanting to solve a potential issue before it happened, Restall and Hofmeister got to work.

Combining the need with a core belief of Winnipegger's, Restall says she was not surprised to see how many people jumped to help.

"I am very much filled with the belief that Winnipeg is filled with amazing people who want to give to their community and they just need to figure out how."

The pair will be running the drive until October 31 and distribute the socks by mid-November.

"It is continuing the warm and fuzzies and I can only hope that as the days progress into October and more and more people hear about it, the higher the number is going to go."