AT just nine Mount Eliza’s Josh Berry knew he wanted to do something for people in need, so he did something a little different – he started collecting socks.
Fast forward seven years and the industrious year 10 student has collected 38,000 pairs of new socks and is still counting.
Berry says he came up with the idea when he was thinking about ways to help homeless people, and realised warm socks were something everyone needed.
“I did some research and warm socks was apparently the second biggest needed clothing item,” he said.
His initial aim was to collect 50,000 socks so that every homeless person (at the time data showed there were 25,000 homeless people in Victoria) had two pairs.
And so, the charity 2pairseach was born, with Berry letter boxing and just talking to neighbours to spread the word.
From there businesses and organisations, schools and individuals starting donating socks or money to buy them.
Berry said there was a lot of satisfaction in knowing he might have made some difference to a homeless person.
Socks are collected all year and distributed every few months, and the charity is aiming to have collected 50,000 socks by the time he turns 18 at the end of 2023.
He keeps everyone up to date with his charity’s Facebook page, and regularly posts images of donations and personal messages of thanks.
To find out where socks can be dropped off go to the website 2pairseach.com.au or the Facebook, 2 Pairs Each.
First published in the Mornington News – 20 September 2022
