LYNNFIELD — With demands for donations to non-profit organizations providing help for the homeless and hungry surging, a couple of Higgins Middle School students are making a difference in a warm and cozy kind of way.
Eighth-graders Addison Merrill and Emma Lynch (aka Merrill/Lynch) are polishing off the final phase of a wildly successful sock drive at the middle school. They collected approximately 1,600 pairs of new socks which are being distributed to several local organizations, including Citizens Inn, The North Shore Community Action program and No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody (NCGH).
Friday, the duo took the campaign to another level, accepting a $500 check from PC Charities, Inc., the charitable arm of the Peabody Lions Club, which will be used to purchase and distribute hats, gloves and mittens later this month.
“We couldn’t believe how many socks were donated,” said Merrill. “We had so many, they were coming in 50 or 60 at a time, so much that they were piled up behind our couch. We also were able to buy tons of socks with about $400 of cash donations we received.”
“I wasn’t expecting this to be as recognized as it ended up or nearly as successful, so I was very surprised with the result,” said Lynch. “Addy and I were just very lucky to have so much community support, so we are really grateful it got to be as big as it did.”
The campaign started when Merrill and Lynch were figuring out how to fulfill the community service requirement for the Junior National Honor Society. A fluke occurrence after Merrill took a summer boat ride in Beverly Harbor with her family sparked the idea to do something to help homeless people.
“I saw homeless people living under the dock area and it made me so sad,” said Merrill. “So I thought, why not make this a project to help the homeless. Then it dawned on me that people never really think about donating socks to homeless shelters, so that’s what we decided to do.”
Merrill enlisted the services of Lynch. They reached out to School Committee member Jarrod Hochman, who runs the day to day operations of NCGH, to spread the word.
“It was about two months ago that the girls volunteered to help and they asked for our blessing to help,” said Hochman. “We made some phone calls, got it going on social media and the response from the community has been phenomenal.”
As word about the drive began to spread, the Peabody Lions Club, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, jumped on board.
“The Lions focus on eye research. We collect and send eyeglasses all over the world, but we also support community initiatives, like this one,” said Lions’ board member and former Superintendent of Schools Herb Levine. “We decided to make a commitment when we saw what the girls were doing. I marvel at the kindness and compassion of Peabody school kids. I’ve always said, just trust the kids to do the right thing and they do. These two girls are examples of Peabody kids helping others and the community should be very proud of them.”
“We just thought these girls have done a lot of work and should get some support,” said Lions President Pamela Sudore. “We are so in awe that these are middle school kids, not college or high school, who are setting a real good example, not just for other kids, but adults as well especially now that needs are even greater in these challenging times.”
But while this month-long campaign may be winding down, Merrill and Lynch aren’t done yet.
“The day we dropped all the socks off last week was weird, we had so many, but it feels really good knowing that we made a difference,” said Merrill. “So now we are thinking about doing another project with the Lions, we don’t know what or when, but we are planning something very soon.”
Lynch said the project served two purposes.
“Obviously, with coronavirus, it was difficult finding community service projects that were safe, but this involved virtually no contact as we had so many people, not only drop off items in drop boxes at the middle school or outside our houses, but we had so many that were Amazon deliveries,” she said. “The thing we felt was important was that most people think of clothing or food when donating to needy people, so we knew that socks were a much-needed item, so we decided it would be a good thing for everyone.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
