Maritimer donates thousands of socks to those in need

Mary Crosby has been making and collecting socks for those in need – as a way to pay-forward the help she received years ago.

In the last five years, Mary Crosby has collected and knitted thousands of socks for those in need.

“We collect all year. We start Jan. 1 for each year’s campaign delivery day. This year I believe was the 8th of December, so we will collect up until the day before, now I say that but last year we just kept going,” says Crosby, found of Socks for Shelters.

Crosby has first-hand experience with the need for clothing.

“I’ve used a shelter myself many years ago and that was one of the first things I learned that when women arrive at a shelter for abused women per se, they usually don’t have too much with them. They are leaving a situation they don’t want to be in or cannot be in any longer and they are usually leaving with nothing,” says Crosby.

Crosby created Socks for Shelters in 2021 and in the first year she was able to donate 5,000 pairs. Donations have increased every year since.

“In 2024 we collected over 40,000 pairs of socks for the homeless in our community,” says Crosby.

The Facebook group now has almost 14,000 members.

Crosby and her team donated to nine shelters this past year within the region, seven of which were new additions from years past.

Kenda Riles, development manager with Bryony House, says big donations like Mary’s free up funds, allowing them to spend them on other needs for those in their shelter.

“One of the really great things about it is it allows us to divert funds to where we actually need to spend them, which is on helping those who have been impacted by intimate partner violence and not having to buy socks,” says Riles. “The first year she brought just over 800 pairs and this last year she brought almost 8,000 pairs of socks and Mary knows that we can’t possibly use that many, but we do share them with other organizations that do need them.”

Riles says the socks go directly to the women and the children that stay at Bryony House and use their services.

“We do go through a lot. Many people will literally come in with what they have on their backs,” says Riles.

Eight-thousand socks alone were also donated to Soul’s Harbour Rescue Mission. CEO Michelle Porter says the supply is used year-round.

“The other day I was telling you the number of items of clothing we give out a year, 500,000, that doesn’t even include socks. Socks are so crucial. But we are giving them away so much we lose count,” says Porter.

Porter says Crosby’s donations go a long way, especially with their mobile missions delivering essentials to those in need.

“Mary has been donating socks for years and what makes it extra special this year is the start of our mobile mission. If the Soul’s mobiles have nothing to give to someone in an encampment, you can at least give them a pair of socks,” says Porter.

Porter says people do not realize the value of socks on their feet, and they go through them so quickly at their mission.

“They keep you healthy, they keep you warm and they are a very difficult thing to have,” says Porter.

Crosby says none of this would be possible without the help from organizations, schools, businesses and the community.

“It’s a little thing but it’s something people don’t think of. So, to step up with socks for a whole family or getting the community involved, it fills your heart,” says Crosby.

Crosby says her goal for 2025 is to have 22,000 socks to donate.

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