'Warm feet equal warm hearts': 10-year-old girls gather socks for the homeless

CTV Toronto: Kids collect socks for the homeless John Musselman reports on a group of fifth graders who have been collecting socks to donate to the homeless this winter.

Have you ever thrown out an odd sock because you could never find its partner?

Two 10-year-old girls from Toronto have turned this common problem into a donation campaign aimed at making sure more people have warm feet this winter.

The project, called “Odd Sox,” asks people to donate their unwanted socks to the homeless.

“This is about donating socks because we see a lot of homeless on the street and we really want to help them out,” said Charley Rangel, one of the girls.

“We know that in the cold weather, when you have warm feet, it makes your whole body warm…warm feet equal warm heart” said Carly Goldhar, the other girl.

On Tuesday, the two fifth graders delivered more than 500 new pairs of socks to Ve’ahavta, a Toronto-based organization that provides good and clothing to those in need.

“It’s fantastic. It’s really inspiring and I just hope that they challenge and harness more of their friends to do this kind of things,” said Ellen Passmore, who works with Ve’ahavta.

Odd Sox was inspired by the idea that everyone has an odd sock at home that they can get rid of. Instead of discarding the sock, Rangel and Goldhar asked that the socks be donated to their campaign.

“From wearing mismatched socks themselves, they decided that everyone must have them around their home and they probably do nothing with them, so why not take these useless items and turn them into a much-needed pair for the homeless,” said Lori Goldhar, Carly’s mother.

The project quickly inspired the generosity of hundreds people who started donating brand new pairs of socks.

Now, Goldhar and Rangel are hoping to get more people to help with the campaign.

“Hopefully, they’re looking to get other schools involved,” said Rachel Dicker, Charley’s mother. “Already some of their peers came over to our home…and took hours to sort these single socks.”

Goldhar and Rangel have also started a website called Odd-Sox.org to inspire others to help their cause.

The girls’ goal is to donate a total of 10,000 socks.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s John Musselman