WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – A north country woman is on a mission to keep the feet of Ukrainians warm, during a cold, desperate winter.
Brenda Sipher began collecting pairs of socks last week to send to Ukraine. She says the response so far has been overwhelming.
Sipher’s sock drive started with a case of cold feet.
“I felt a very strong need to do something,” she told 7 News. “And I wracked my brain for days.”
Then she went outside to do some work. When she came in, her feet were freezing. So she slipped on a pair of warm socks.
“I’m a sock person. I love socks. And I thought, ‘You know, I wish there was some way I could get socks to Ukraine,’” Brenda said.
She made contact with a Ukrainian church in Syracuse. That’s where the donations go first, before being shipped to Pennsylvania and then overseas to Poland and Moldova.
“Anything that goes out of here next week will be there by the end of the month. It’ll be there by Easter,” she said. “And that made me really think, ‘This is good. I can do this.’ I’m an old woman, but I can do this.”
“This” has expanded beyond socks. Brenda was getting requests last week for baby formula, baby bottles, any kind of dry food – think protein bars, snack bars, food people can carry – and storage containers like Zip-Loc bags and plastic totes.
She’s recruited students from area schools to help sort and organize what she takes in, and was looking for storage space last week.
“It’s kinda snowballed on me. I told my husband when I started, I said ‘It’s either gonna fizzle out and nobody will bring me any socks, or it’s gonna explode,’” she said.
But the smallest donation touched her the most.
“I had a little old lady who came with three pairs of socks. That was probably the best donation I’ll ever get because this lady, who struggled with a cane to walk, brought three pairs of socks.”
Brenda works out of the Lake Ontario Realty office in Chaumont. If you have items to donate, you can drop them at the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors office at 210 Court Street in Watertown.
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