What are you going to do about it?

Last Tuesday at TEDxColumbus, Reade Harpham, one of our most inspirational speakers asked us the question: What are you going to do about it?  As the organizer, I didn’t give it much thought until this morning, when I had time to actually do so, when I looked in my daughter’s trash can and saw this:

This weekend, I was determined to sort through all of our socks.  I came up with about 45 ‘widows,’ the kids’ pile seen here in the trash.   I hold back the parent socks for hopes that the matches will someday appear (hah).  I threw a different photo on Facebook (of them all lined up before I tossed them) and got a response from two high school friends:

“OMG, I have a drawer full of these. Someday, maybe someday when we win the lottery and I can pay someone to take the time to match them.”

and

“Imagine what would happen if we all put our widows together, what matches we might find.”

Hmmmm.

One of my longest time clients, the Capital Crossroads Special Improvement District, along with the Discovery Special Improvement District, host a toiletry and intimates drive (underwear, socks, etc) for the homeless overflow each fall, preparing for the winter months.

Yes, socks.  While it may not be the most fashion forward statement to wear a slightly mis-matched pair of socks, wouldn’t some warm, clean socks be better than none?   Wouldn’t it be best if I didn’t throw these socks into the waste stream?  Wouldn’t it be a nice chance for everyone with those drawers of socks that really will never find a match to throw them into one pile and at least make some pairs of blues, browns, whites and tans for those that could really use them?

My invitation to my friends and family is that I will play matchmaker (for those of you that know me, this is not an unusal hat to wear) for any clean, non-holey socks you would like to contribute.  I’ll pick them up (email me ruth@milligancommunications.com) or you can drop them at my house.   If you want to have your own sock widow drive in your office, please do so, and I’ll still play matchmaker for any you collect.  Join me in diverting some waste, cleaning out your drawer and helping some folks have some warmer feet this winter.

And in the meantime, I can suitably answer his question.  At least for today.