Homeless hostel St Mary’s in Bangor has launched its sock appeal!
The hostel has found that socks are one of the least donated items, yet are one of the most needed. Wear and tear of footwear is common for those sleeping rough and to help keep both homeless men and women warm and free from infection, a strong supply of socks is essential.
Barbara Fitzsimmons of North Wales Housing-managed hostel, St Marys said:
“Strangely we get very little socks when we receive donations and constantly have to buy new where possible. I think that this is just an item that is overlooked as people tend to focus on the bulkier items such as coats and jumpers.”
She added:
“Any unwanted presents are ideal or perhaps people may be able to spare a pair from a multipack purchase. So many people who donate actually buy from new and are so generous – we would ask these people who may be considering supporting our service users to think feet, and socks in particular!”
Donations can be made at the gates of the hostel on Love Lane in Bangor.
As part of St Marys drive to ensure service users have access to warm clothes and outdoors equipmemet, teams from North Wales Housing will be once again venturing to the Wakestock festival post event to collected any leftover usables.
Clothing, footwear and camping equipment that has been left will be reclaimed by the team, taken back to the hostels, cleaned and stored in preparation for the winter months when supplies are at their lowest.
Barbara said:
“The Waksetock collection is a brilliant way of having access to a huge amount of really useful items that help our rough sleepers to get through Winter. Our team of volunteers will spend the day wading through the rubbish to sift our some gems for us to be able to use and share with service users.”
