QUESTServes partnered with Knock Knock Give a Sock to host a sock donation drive between March 8th and 12th!
QUESTServes, QUEST’s newest student organization, just wrapped up its Knock Knock Give a Sock event. One of QUESTServes’ main initiatives for this year was to begin to partner with organizations outside of the University of Maryland’s campus and give back. They were able to accomplish this goal when QUESTServes student Ryan Goodman (Cohort 36) had the opportunity to meet with the founder of Knock Knock Give a Sock, Adina Lichtman. Adina had started the charity when she was in college, where she physically knocked on students’ dorm room doors and asked for sock donations. She was able to collect thousands of pairs of socks for homeless shelters this way. Though QUESTServes wasn’t able to knock on dorm room doors this semester, they were still able to collect hundreds of pairs of socks for local homeless shelters over the past few weeks! I caught up with Ryan Gerbes (Cohort 33), the QUESTServes lead, to learn more about the project.
Ryan explained to me that they placed sock collection sites all over campus, with most collection sites being in campus dining halls. However, the sock collection site that seemed to collect the most socks was actually outside of the Vigilante Coffee Company. Every night, members of QUESTServes would go collect the socks from the bins. Another helpful initiative was placing Venmo QR codes on top of the collection bins, so that even if people didn’t have socks to donate, they could still contribute to the cause. QUESTServes finally compiled all of the socks over spring break, where they counted 526 pairs of socks that they were able to donate! They split the socks among two shelters: College Park Youth and Family as well as Shepherd’s Table in Silver Spring. Ryan also wanted to give a shout out to the QUEST community for all of the support he got for this project – so many QUEST students and alumni supported this initiative, and it meant a lot to everyone on QUESTServes.
Dropping off socks at Shephard’s Table!
I then asked Ryan about advice he’d give to students who want to get more involved with community service. Ryan first acknowledged that it can be hard to prioritize giving back to the community when students already have to juggle academics, working, extracurriculars, and simply taking care of themselves – so students need to find an organization that they’re actually passionate about and interested in. “Don’t just figure out what you want to do, but why you want to do it. It’s easier to prioritize things when they’re not just something to cross off of a to-do list.” For example, Ryan just signed up as a fire department volunteer for fun! He also suggests just “taking the first step. There are little things you can do to make someone’s day better, and day by day, these turn into a habit.” Additionally, if anyone has service projects that they want to start but don’t know where to begin, Ryan encourages you to reach out to a member of QUESTServes! “Our goal is to empower individual members of the QUEST community to give back as opposed to being the only charitable organization within QUEST.”
If you want to learn more about Knock Knock Give a Sock, you can learn more about the organization here! Also, stay tuned for upcoming QUESTServes initiatives throughout the rest of the year. The QUEST community is so proud of QUESTServes for making a difference in the community around them and can’t wait to hear about what’s next in store!