This holiday season, the LBJ Student Center staff is on a mission to make sure everyone has access to this comfort, regardless of whether or not they can afford it. It is in this spirit that donations of new socks for women and children will be accepted at the front desk of the LBJ Student Center until Dec. 11.
“We’re trying to do festive socks and fuzzy socks or any kind of socks,” said Sabrina Lee, Conference Services coordinator. “It’d be kind of fun for people that are in need to look down there and see something fun going on on their socks. You don’t realize how important they are.”
This is the third year the Student Center has collected socks on behalf of the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center (HCWC), though like many things, the format looks different this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Like other nonprofits, HCWC has been hit hard by the pandemic and is currently not accepting used clothing donations in an effort to reduce contact as much as possible. Still, the Student Center wanted to make sure it was able to help the center meet its needs in any way possible.
“People have the ability and the means to buy something and get it the next day. It’s gratitude season. Things seem to be going so wrong in the world right now, but I try to focus on all the things that are still going right,” Lee said. “One of those things is not just thinking about myself but figuring out how I can help someone else, even if it’s something that’s [as] small [as] helping out people in need.”
Lee remembers stories from her mother’s generation of people darning their socks as a means of repair when they would get holes. Simply throwing something out and instantly replacing it was not an option like it is today. This perspective is important to keep in mind as the season of excess approaches.
“We all take our own situations for granted. Other people may be losing their homes and sleeping in their cars, things that we don’t have to deal with,” Lee said. “It’s very humbling to imagine that that’s happening around us.”
Anyone interested in donating new women’s and children’s socks can stop by the LBJ Student Center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until Dec 11.