‘A hug for your feet’
Red Door Ministries Operational Manager Codi Hochstatter, left, and Greenpoint Technologies Administrative Assistant Amy Ward show off their socks in anticipation of Socktober. Ward’s socks are festooned with the face of a co-worker, she said; she won them in a white elephant gift exchange. Hochstatter’s hosiery is in a rainbow pattern to symbolize God’s promise, she said, and our calling to be his hands and feet.
JOEL MARTIN/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
MOSES LAKE — There will be some warmer, drier feet on the streets of Moses Lake this year, thanks to an event organizers are calling Socktober.
“We want to help the community that is less fortunate, in transition, maybe homeless, by providing warm, comforting socks for them,“ said Amy Ward, administrative assistant at Greenpoint Technologies, which started the campaign in partnership with Red Door Cafe and Ministry. “So in the month of October we’re going to be collecting new socks that have been donated.”
Ward didn’t come up with the name “Socktober” herself, she said; she heard it on a radio station out of town and thought something like that would go well in Moses Lake. Socks are one of the least-donated items needed by the homeless, but their value is more than just little tubes made of cloth, Red Door Operational Manager Codi Hochstatter said.
“I've been broke, I've been homeless, I've been one of those that struggled, and a pair of socks is like a hug for your feet,” Hochstatter said. “A brand new pair of socks, that's the best feeling in the world.”
Socks are even more important for people who suffer with conditions like diabetes, which often goes untreated in the homeless, Hochstatter said.
“When they get a sore they can’t heal, and then they get gangrene and they lose their feet,” she said.
Drop boxes will be set up starting Oct. 1 at Red Door, 202 W. Third Ave., and possibly at other locations around town, Ward said, adding that she’ll be happy to bring a box to any business that wants to help with the collection.
“The socks can be for babies, toddlers, teens, adults, grandpas, anybody; any color, any size, any design,” Ward said.
Red Door, a former café and bakery, still serves food but was bought three years ago and revitalized as a ministry for not only the homeless but for anyone who was lonely or in need. It also offers facilities to the community for Bible studies, prayer groups and meetings, according to its website.
“We feed the homeless and pray over them and give them oatmeal,” Hochstatter said. “And I just share my story of how I got better and how I got off the streets, just show them that hope.”
The socks will be distributed at the end of the drive Oct. 31, at a time and place to be determined, Ward said.
“(Socks are) the love that these people need because they have been turned away and rejected,” Hochstatter said. “But it's how we love the unlovely that matters the most, because they too are people, and we're looking at somebody that God loves. And if we can't love them, then how are we being God's hands and feet?”
Businesses or individuals interested in hosting a drop-off box are invited to contact the Red Door Cafe and Ministry at 509-350-5525.