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Stepping up to meet our 10-year strategic plan goal of cultivating healthy communities and belonging for all — UVA Health launched its annual Socktober initiative on Oct. 1. This year's goal: collecting 12,500 new pairs!

Many unhoused individuals rarely take their shoes off, walk often, and don’t always have access to laundry facilities, making clean socks the top requested — yet least donated — item at shelters. Socktober’s mission is to keep feet dry, clean, and warm.

Locations

Through Nov. 1, you can drop off a new pair of socks in Socktober bins at:

• University Medical Center Cafeteria
• Wahoo West Café
• OR waiting room
• Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center
• Orthopedic Center at Ivy Road
• Fontaine

Team Spirit

Or, rally your department to vie for prizes! The department that turns in the most pairs each week will receive cookie platters for their team. There will be a total of four departmental winners the weeks of:

• Oct 1-11
• Oct. 12-18
• Oct. 19-25
• Oct. 25-Nov. 1

Overall departmental prizes also will be awarded. The three departments that turn in the most pairs of new socks will win a catered event and the top department will earn a trophy! For donations to count toward a departmental prize, give collected socks directly to the retail manager or supervisor on duty. Questions? Contact Chadwick French, System Director of Retail and Marketing, UVA Health, Morrison Healthcare.

In the 2023 campaign, team members donated 11,7000 new pairs of socks for local organizations that help the unhoused.

Printables

To help you spread the word and generate interest: print and hang, or share electronically, a fun sock tracker and horizontal and vertical graphics.

Good luck and thank you in advance for your donation!