Children at Jay Early Learning Center receive shoe boxes filled with new socks from a sock drive held at area businesses. The sock drive was part of a class project for Cynthia Kaherl of Jay. (Submitted photo)

Cynthia Kaherl of Jay reads from a sock book she donated to the Jay Early Learning Center along with 25-30 pair of socks for each of the 26 children at the center. (Submitted photo)

A class project provided 1,156 socks to children in Head Start programs in Jay and Gardiner.

The Sock Drive was designed by Cynthia Kaherl of Jay and Kelly Lamoreau of Gardiner, both students in an Interventions for Families with Children class at the University of Maine at Augusta.

Kaherl, who works for Upward Bound at the University of Maine at Farmington,  takes the course online and is working on a Bachelor of Science degree in mental health services, she said.

Professor Patricia Clark assigned an advocacy project to help children and families in the state, she said. 

After looking at some of Clark’s suggestions and an idea posted by her classmate, Lamoreau, Kaherl suggested the two partner on the project.

“Socks are an important thing here in Maine,” she said.

She found other projects online designed to furnish socks for people, especially those in homeless shelters.

The classmates created a Sock Drive to benefit Head Start and sought donations from businesses in their areas throughout the month of October.

Kaherl delivered boxes of socks to the Jay Early Learning Center last week, said Heidi Gray, center director.

At times, children, likely trying to dress themselves, come without socks, she said. Sometimes they get their shoes and socks wet on the playground and while parents usually send an extra set of clothes, socks can be overlooked.

“Parents were thankful and happy,” she said of the gift of 25 to 30 pairs of socks for each of the 26 children in the center. “Some kids are already wearing their new socks.”

Kaherl included socks for the teachers in the donation. She also donated books to the Jay Early Learning Center, Gray said.

Members of Fitness Stylz in Livermore Falls were very generous and filled a basket with socks, she said.

Baskets at Otis Federal Credit Union and the elementary school also brought in socks. Riverside Kwik Stop and Hannaford in Jay gave money for Kaherl to buy socks, she said.

Co-workers and people on the University of Maine at Farmington campus responded, as did friends and family.

Parents and teachers at the Jay Early Learning Center also contributed, Gray said. The center, a part of Child Services at Community Concepts, serves children from prenatal to 4 years old, she said.

“It was a learning experience,” Kaherl said of advocating for the children.

As she prepared to pass in her project Wednesday, she said she learned to not take it personally when businesses were not excited about another poster, another project. They are besieged with great projects all the time, she said.

She also found that networking and involving other people like Gray was beneficial and provided some successful ideas.

Options are available for clothing, such as pants and shirts, to help parents and children, but socks are always missed, Gray said.

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