Jersey pupils ‘sock it to’ Dakota reservation

Winters in the Badlands of South Dakota can be harsh, with temperatures sometimes plummeting to –40F and heavy snowfalls and vicious Arctic winds whipping across the prairie. Nestled in the midst of this brutal environment is the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, an area considered one of the poorest in the United States. Here, many Oglala Lakota families live in homes with earthen floors, some without windows, appliances, and a means to keep warm.

Limber Key Clubbers do the limbo during a sock hop to raise money for American Indian children in need.

That stark snapshot of life in southwest South Dakota prompted students in Jackson, New Jersey—almost 1,800 miles away—to do something. The Key Club at Liberty Jackson High School challenged the Builders Club at Christa McAuliffe Middle School to see who could collect the most socks for children attending the reservation’s Red Cloud Indian School.

The month-long sock drive netted a total of 1,054 pairs of socks. Of all the items the American Indian children need, the youth groups chose socks because children can always use them, notes Alexandra Murdocca, Key Club president, whose idea it was the to hold the competition.

“Socks you can use all year round,” Alexandra explains, “winter, spring, summer, and fall.”

Each club went about collecting socks in its own way, each one hoping to knock the other’s socks off. Members of the Builders Club, for example, decorated boxes for placement in each homeroom and advertised the contest on the school’s morning television show with a huge banner that boldly proclaimed: “Christa McAuliffe Middle School socks it to you.”

In addition to collecting socks at school, the Key Club threw a 1950s sock hop, complete with a limbo and hula-hoop contest. Admission to the hop cost each guest a pair of socks and $1, with the money collected earmarked for shipping and postage of all the socks. The event raised 80 pairs of socks and $80.

“Our teachers also participated,” notes middle school teacher and faculty advisor Linda Dougherty. “And our students were quite enthusiastic, though I had to explain to some of them that we were collecting new and unused socks. Some of the kids wanted to give me their used ones from the boys’ locker room or they volunteered to give me the socks off their feet.”

Winning the competition was the Key Club, which collected 699 pairs of socks to the Builders Club’s 355.

“It’s wonderful what these students at Jackson Liberty High School and McAuliffe Middle School are doing,” Tina Merdanian, public relations director at the Red Cloud Indian School, told The Tri-Town News in Jackson. “I want to recognize the students and staffs at these two schools for their efforts in organizing and collecting these socks for our students here. It’s that type of generosity that the Lakota people believe in. It’s one of our strongest values.”

For winning the competition, the Key Club won a trophy, which it hopes to defend in a similar competition next school year. Both clubs are quick to point out though, that the trophy is not their motivation.

“It’s always good to encourage community service and taking care of people in need,” Ellen Fuge, Key Club advisor stresses. “Projects like this encourage them to realize there are people out there who are far worse off than they are.”