Lynne Adkins of CBS affiliate KYW 1060 Newsradio in Philadelphia, PA  ran a clip this morning entitled Local Man Wants To Keep Needy Feet Dry and Warm.

WAYNE, Pa. (CBS) -  Tom Costello Jr. was volunteering at a homeless shelter when a podiatrist told him the needy men and women there suffered from a lot of foot-related problems because so few of them had socks.

Costello says most people who donate clothes usually forget about feet:

“What do you do when your sweater wears out, well you give it to Goodwill or to the church. What about your socks? When they’re worn out, I threw them away, so you’ll find out the homeless have a lot of opportunity for coats, jackets or sweaters, but they don’t get any socks.”

He’s started the www.thejoyofsox.org to raise money to buy or to receive donations of new footwear for the homeless.

To see the article on KYW’s website please click here.

We would like to thank Annette and all the Crew at Trader Joe’s in the Gateway store in Wayne, PA for donating 300 paper bags.

The bags will be used as a convenient way to transport bags of socks to the homeless.  The socks are separated into bags for children, women and men.

Thanks Trader Joe’s!

Isn’t it great when people help other people?  Well, The Joy of Socks owes a special thanks to Don Dempsey at Cabrini College for donating his many graphic skills and talents in designing our new logo.

And also for having the patience to put up with the “process” of working with us.

Thanks again Don!!

Chestnut Hill College, as part of their community involvement program presented an Advocacy For The Homeless assembly for the entire freshman class last week for approximately 300 students.

The organizations represented were: St. Francis Inn,  Project H.O.M.E. and The Joy of Sox.

St. Francis Inn tries to meet the immediate daily needs of the people they serve with food, clothing and hospitality.  Furthermore, they empower persons to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty and address structural injustices. They seek to build relationships with those that they serve by respecting their human dignity and by helping them to restore hope in their lives, and by living simply among them.

Project H.O.M.E. (Housing, Opportunities for Employment, Medical Care, Education) empowers people to break the cycle of homelessness, address the structural causes of poverty, and attain their fullest potential as members of society.

The Joy of Sox simply helps provide socks for the homeless and involves community organizations to help raise awareness of homelessness.

Following the assembly the students met with their advisers to continued to develop programs to help these three special nonprofits.

Great news!  Today The Joy of Sox received notification from the IRS that it was granted federal tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the tax code.  The effective date is January 26, 2010.

A press release will be issued shortly!

The IRS mileage deduction for 2010 remains at $0.14 per mile.  This mean that if you itemize your tax deductions you can write off $0.14 for every mile you drive for charitable reasons.

For example, if you drive 500 miles a year for charity you can deduct $70.00 (500 miles x $0.14 per mile).

This is a great inspirational video that really inspired us.  It is from Michael Bunjay Stanier.  His website is www.BoxOfCrayon.biz.

If you would like more information about using his video please email us.

What moves people to do great things? One may never know the answer to that question, however Tommy Evans and the people at Alabama Whole Socks (AWS) sure do a lot of great things!

Recently AWS sent The Joy of Sox many pallets of socks.  We are extremely grateful!

Our volunteers will now package them up and soon deliver them to a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen and an Interfaith Hospitality site.

As Bert and John Jacobs, founders of a tee-shirt company, say, “Life is Good.”

Stay angry!

Change the world!

Never give up!

Never give in!

– Tom Peters

You know who you are.  And we thank you.  Please know that your donations will be put to good work.

With you donations The Joy of Sox is already starting a collaboration with a homeless shelter in Philadelphia.

So the flowers and smiles are for you!

If you are fortunate to have some discretionary income in these interesting economic times I am sure you already have a favorite charity or two that you donate to.  Perhaps when you get the unsolicited phone calls in the evening or those unsolicited requests in the mail you do the same thing – hang up or throw it away.  And that is simple enough to do here – simply close out your web browser.

But if for some reason you want to know more, or even want to help please

A few years ago, Tom Costello Jr, founder and Chief Sock Person, and his wife were volunteering at a soup kitchen in Philadelphia.  Here is the story Tom tells about that day that lead to the formation of  The Joy of Sox^®with the mission of simply providing socks for the homeless.

I was really homelessphobic to the point that I would cross the street to avoid facing a homeless person.  I even didn’t want to go into the City for fear that I might come across someone homeless.