Two Lloydminster Comprehensive High School students are looking to warm the feet of the city’s less fortunate.

As part of their first-year leadership program, Grade 11 students Devyn Haygarth and Asha Petrie have organized a sock drive for the school in conjunction with the 20K Sock Day initiative.

“Socks are a basic necessity and a lot of people have them but in our community, we found that when people are coming into the Men’s Shelter that’s what they’re looking for right away a nice clean pair of socks,” says Haygarth.

The two have turned the sock drive into a competition. Students from each classroom are asked to bring new socks to donate and for every pair of socks their class receives a point. The class with the most points will get a party.

The drive comes a bit later than the official 20K Sock Day which happens on February 21. Haygarth and Petrie will be collecting the socks on February 28 with the donations being split between the Lloydminster Men’s Shelter and The Olive Tree. Haygarth recalls her visit to the shelter as an eye-opening experience.

“I’ve done a bit of volunteering in the past and saw kids in torn-up sneakers with no socks or kids without proper winter clothing. This is a nice chance for us to give back, repay the community and help out as many people as we can.”

20K Sock Day is a nation-wide drive started by clothing brand WE BE US. The initiative started last year with the goal of donating 20,000 socks to homeless shelters around the country