Mount Sinai’s Health Care Support Services team spearheaded a community campaign in October that collected and donated socks—one of the personal items that homeless people need most—as part of a nationwide campaign called “Socktober.”
When employees at the Recanati/Miller Transplantation Institute (RMTI) learned about the initiative, they decided to participate as a department. A collection box was placed in their area, and they set a goal of collecting 1,000 socks. As they approached their initial goal, they continued to set higher and higher goals.
In the end, the RMTI team collected 1,623 of the 2,377 socks collected. The team even got the apparel company Bombas to donate 100 pairs of socks.
The socks were distributed to homeless shelters in the area, including Prospect Family Residence in the Bronx. In addition, a team at Mount Sinai Brooklyn partnered with the site’s Diversity Council to donate their sock collection to the nonprofit Spanish Coalition for Housing for distribution to shelters.
“We found a way to make a difference in our community,” says Pat Ortlieb, who led the effort across support services departments, including Food, Environmental Services, Engineering, and Transport.