9,756
pairs of socks
collected
Set Your Socks On Helping Others is a friendly competition between area schools to collect new or gently used pairs of socks to be donated to the underprivileged in Cleveland.
why?
DID YOU KNOW
Socks are among the most-requested items at shelters, but are among the least donated -- and socks are important. They not only provide relief and comfort to the homeless, but they also protect them from hypothermia, frostbite, illness, and infection. When M.A.D. Club learned about this need, we quickly designed a project that would address it in the Cleveland area. And of course, we had to make it fun.
2018
In 2018, SYSOHO was born.
M.A.D. Club reached out to high schools stretching across the greater Cleveland area and invited them to join the friendly competition. For its first pilot run, Set Your Socks had six high schools participate. The idea was simple: the school that collected the most amount of socks in one week would be named the winner! In the weeks beforehand, student leaders at each school coordinated exciting incentives and created fun advertising campaigns to invite their school communities to participate. At the conclusion of the competition week, over 8,000 pairs of socks had been collected, which were then distributed across various shelters in Cleveland.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
1. M.A.D. Club reaches out to schools to join the competition
2. Once schools commit to participating, m.a.d. club provides a sysoho kit
This instructional kit includes:
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A detailed project guideline that outlines the timeline of the campaign and every step needed to complete it successfully (don't worry, it's simple -- it wouldn't be fun otherwise!)
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Pre-made flyers that schools may use to advertise the campaign (flyers contain facts about the cause, information about other schools competing, etc.) for use at the school's discretion (schools may also construct their own flyers)
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An idea sheet with fun incentives and advertising ideas to promote the campaign
3. THE BASIC RULES OF THE COMPETITION
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The competition between all schools lasts one full week. ​​Schools may collect for longer than one week, but for the competition's purposes, M.A.D. Club only counts the total from the week in which all schools are competing. M.A.D. Club will take and actually requests the grand total of each school's collection if they collect socks past the competition week -- we add this to the overall campaign total at the end and celebrate our accomplishments together!
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We ask that each participating school have a student leader or leadership team that helps organize the project. During the entire project, but especially during the competition week, M.A.D. Club will be in contact with these appointed students to receive updates on their school's live count and progress.
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As Set Your Socks on Helping Others 2020 draws closer, more specific details will be added regarding this year's rules.
4. DELIVERING AND DISTRIBUTING THE SOCKS TO SHELTERS
As with all of our projects, M.A.D. Club has plenty of contacts at specific shelters in Cleveland, and some benefit from this campaign particularly more than others. We do recognize that some schools already have existing partnerships with charitable organizations or shelters and may wish their collected socks to be donated to them -- we welcome this! However, for those schools who need a home for their collected socks once the project is over, M.A.D. Club will help align them with our connections.
2023
We want YOU to join the competition! We're looking for schools to participate in the 2023 Set Your Socks On Helping Others campaign.
REGISTER, AND WE WILL REACH OUT TO YOU WITH THE INFO KIT AND OUR NEXT STEPS!
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