Consider what life without socks would be like. That's what 11-year-old Tanner Eaves is asking everyone in the Lake Mary, Florida community, as he collects socks for needy children this holiday season, The Orlando Sentinel reports.
Reasoning that socks were more recession-friendly than the purchase of toys, Tanner's already collected more than 500 pairs, and is due to collect more by his Dec. 14 deadline. Days after Halloween, Tanner created a flier and canvassed local businesses to promote the sock drive, which he plans to make an annual event.
He asked his school, Heathrow Elementary, for help, too, via a schoolwide broadcast about his project.
"You would get nasty blisters all the time," the fifth-grader wrote in a letter to his school administrators to get permission for the announcement. He concluded: "Wouldn't it feel nice if you were one of those less-fortunate kids and you woke up Christmas morning and had a nice, warm pair of cozy socks in your stocking (which, by the way, is also a sock) instead of the smelly, itchy ones you have now?"
Tanner's first charity donation was six years ago, when he declared he wanted to donate toys to abused and needy children at the Children's Home Society. He noticed that many of the children has mismatched or too-small socks, so most of the socks collected during the drive will go to the Children's Home Society.