Brook Avenue Elementary gifted and talented students, teacher Diane Sriram and Mission Waco’s groups director Libby Barnhill stand in front of the Mission Waco van before donating 288 pairs of socks the campus collected for its Socktober project.

Brook Avenue Elementary School students hope their Socktober service project brings winter relief to Mission Waco’s My Brother’s Keeper Homeless Shelter. Students collected and donated 288 pairs of socks to the organization.

“We’re helping people live, and it makes me feel good,” said Ezra Watson, second grader. “It feels great because we’re helping the homeless. It’s important to me that we take care of them so they’re not in a worse condition this winter,” said Delvin Dunner, third grader.

Kindness is Brook Avenue’s theme this school year, which fits well with a goal in Diane Sriram’s gifted and talented class to develop student leaders.

“As leaders, they look for problems either in their school or community and work to develop solutions,” said Sriram. “Our students are very familiar with Mission Waco and what they do in the community. They worked with Mission Waco to come up with an idea, and we did research to find out why socks are important. It’s good because they know what they’ve collected and have an idea of where it’s going and who it’s going to help.”

Libby Barnhill, groups director at Mission Waco, met with students and picked up the socks, which span child and adult sizes. Barnhill says socks are typically a high need for the homeless population during the winter, and Mission Waco gives many pairs away at the shelter and their December toy store event.

“These kids really put in the effort to get socks for their neighbors, their friends and people right down the road,” said Barnhill. “This is a community taking care of its own community. This many pairs of socks is huge and makes an impact for hundreds of families. So, we are super thankful.”

Sriram says her students were also excited to create Socktober projects, which included sock puppets and tri-fold boards to showcase their research. Second grader Orlyn Quiroz Jr.’s butterfly-winged themed puppet even “flies to the stores to get the socks.”