In Maine, people understand how crucial clean, dry socks are, especially in the winter. The Laundry Basket, a local laundromat, turned a common problem into a charitable initiative.
Amanda Sidell, the owner of The Laundry Basket, explains their unique approach: “So, we just finished up our November sock drive. For every lost sock we found, we committed to donating a brand-new pair of socks to local charities.”
Sidell hopes to deliver socks to Partners for Peace, the Shaw House, and the Hope House through PCHC.
She adds, “November happened to be a slower month with 56 socks lost that we picked up. Laugh or cry, laundry isn’t always a fun thing to do, so we try and find the fun in it when we can. So, we thought, ‘You know what, let’s do something with all these lost socks that we pick up.’”
The laundromat’s pledge, community contributions, and a generous donation of 750 pairs from sock brand Bombas led to the collection of over 950 pairs of new socks.
Through a local Bombas ambassador, who learned about the sock drive, the first drop-off was made at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter.
Archie Curry, a program director at the shelter, emphasizes the high demand for socks in winter, stating, “Socks get wet very quickly, and for us, because we don’t have laundering facilities here so we can’t take them back in and clean them, they’re in such high demand that to be able to give somebody that doesn’t have something or have the means to launder them is important.”
Sidell highlights the laundromat as a community hub and expresses the importance, as a local business, of giving back: “I think it’s really important to continuously give back to our community. I’m a social worker by training, though I still have that social worker heart. These aren’t strangers; these are our community members.”
For those interested in contributing, Bangor Area Homeless Shelter and other local organizations accept individual donations. Visit Bangor Area Homeless Shelter’s website for more information.
