Our friends at Comcast were nice enough to invite us back on Newsmakers.  A very special thanks to Jen Boyette, Comcast’s Governemnt Affairs Manager, and Jill Horner, on-air host, for allowing me to tell our story about providing new socks for the homeless!!  

Comcast graciously had Tom Costello Jr  on their Comcast Newsmaker program for the Philadlephia region (again).  But this time it was to talk about a sock donation from a very special person…President George Bush (41)! The show, hosted by Laura Jones and arranged by Jen Boyett, runs about 4:30 and allowed Tom to talk about …

This is amazing! President George Bush (41), who is known for wearing unusual socks, donated a new pair of socks in support of our mission. We hope to auction them off and raise lots of money. The pair of socks were beautifully framed (see photo top) and includes the note card from the President (see …

This is really super!  The Joy of Sox recently qualified for a 2013 Top-Rated Nonprofit Award. The award, from GreatNonprofits.org, is a great honor that is given less than 10% of eligible nonprofits. A special thanks to all our donors, board members and volunteers who helped, and continue to help, make us a get nonprofit! …

Comcast graciously had Tom Costello Jr on their ComcastNewsmaker program for the Philadlephia region.  The show, hosted by Laura Jones and arranged by Jen Boyett, runs 4:30 and allowed Tom to answer some questions about The Joy Of Sox and their mission of providing new socks for the homeless.  The clip of the show appears …

A WORLD RECORD number of new socks were distributed recently to the homeless of the Philadlephia area. 15,120 pairs of new socks were sorted, packed and distributed to 28 homeless shelters in the Philadlephia area!! With the cold weather approaching the timing was perfect to get the socks to those who need them. The Joy …

It’s great to see a large corporation like Comcast give back to the community.  And we were very fortunate to benefit from their sense of corporate social responsibility. The service center in Aston, PA held a sock drive earlier in the year and to our surprise the Comcast Foundation recently sent us a nice donation to …

The Joy of Sox® was honored with eTown‘s prestigious e-Chievement Award® last week in Boulder, CO.  Nick and Helen Forster, founders of eTown, made the presentation to Tom Costello, Jr , Chief Sock Person. The award is periodically given to selected nonprofits based on the criteria of  “Celebrating those who are making a positive difference in their …

The Order of Eastern Star held a sock hop in Valley Forge, PA.  Members were asked to bring new socks for the homeless to benefit the nonprofit The Joy Of Sox. Rowinea (Ro) Wooten was co-chair of the event for the Deborah Grand Chapter and did a spectacular job organizing their event. Over 400 pairs …

Why, in the for-profit world can a company spend tons on marketing and advertising in order to make tons on their product, yet… in the nonprofit world it is almost considered criminal if they even say the words marketing and advertising? Below is a great TED talk given by Dan Pallotta that addresses the “discrimination” …

A special thanks to Pat Matthews and her local Charms Incorporated group for holding a sock drive for The Joy of Sox.  This is the second year in a row that they have collected new socks for the homeless! Lot of new socks The over 800 pairs of new socks will be distributed to the …

Someone asked about the locations of homeless shelters around Philly.  So here is what we use – a map. The pins in the map represent the location of facilities in Philly where The Joy of Sox either presently provides new socks, or plans to provide new socks. The map is actually a lot bigger and …

A special thanks to Samantha McDevitt at Comcast for organizing a sock drive for us for their Comcast Cares program!! Lots of new socks Two service centers, Aston, PA and Vorhees, NJ, collected over 3,000 pairs of new socks for The Joy of Sox. These new socks will be distributed to the homeless of the region …

The New York State Legislature passed a Resolution declaring February 14th, Valentine’s Day, as Socks for the Homeless Day. This is really cool…and important.  Why important?  Well most people are generous between Thanksgiving and the end of the year.  But come the new year donations come to an abrupt stop. The idea of the resolution …

Eye-opening stories about the importance of new socks for the homeless have been added to our Stories From The Streets  page. Read what homeless people Kiwi, Christine, Darlene, Daniel, Has, Ruth and William have to say about the important of new socks. There are 11 short interviews in all.  Here are quotes from two of …

According to Kathy at the Hospitality Center in Norristown, PA they served between 1,000 – 1,200 distinct clients at their shelter in the last year. Yet according to HUD’s 20111 Point in Time Estimate of Homeless (12/2011), page 21,  there are only 410 homeless in the Norristown area. What’s wrong with this picture?? What’s wrong …

For this year’s Martin Luther King Day of Service 12 students from Villanova University sorted and packed 4,782 pairs of new socks for the homeless in the morning. After lunch they distributed 2,040 pairs of new socks to facilities in the Philadelphia area.  Great job guys – thanks so much for your help! Ignite change.  …

PHL17’s Steve Highsmith interviewed Tom Costello Jr, Chief Sock Person at The Joy of Sox on the station’s InFocus show. Steve and Tom talked about The Joy of Sox’s mission of providing new socks for the homeless. The video is about 26 minutes so you will probably not look at the entire clip, but perhaps …

ADP, the national payroll, human services & benefits company is great!! Donation of new socks have been received from all across the United States including their offices in: St. Louis, MO Westerville, OH Indianapolis, IN Bloomington, MN Scottsdale, AZ Chicago, IL Chandler, AZ Dearborn, MI Independence, OH Thank you so much ADP for helping make …

This is amazing – recently we have received donations of new socks from SIX STATES (some anonymously). Waltham, MA;  Milton, DE;  Tucson, AZ;  Deerfiled, IL;  Sammamish, WA and Brainerd, MN. Thank you so much for helping make homeless toes happy toes!!

This week was intern interview week!  Three students from Villanova University were interviewed to help us during the spring semester 2013.  Two interviews were face-to-face and one was via Skype from Belgium! What a great group of people and I am already planning all the wonderful things we can accomplish with such talent on board.  …

Crozer-Keystone Health System donates new socks for the homeless.  Juliette Turturro, one of our board members contacted Katrina Stier, PR Manager at Crozer, and made arrangements for them to conduct a sock drive. 394 pairs of new socks for the homeless were collected and will be distributed to shelters in the region.  The photo is …

Here’s a look at our new label for The Joy of Sox.  The label is placed on every box of new socks for the homeless that we deliver or ship. This particular one shows that the box contains 120 pairs of new socks for women and that the box was packed by students from Villanova University.   …

Our Thanksgiving tradition – delivering new socks for the homeless to Cathedral Kitchen in Camden, New Jersey. This morning we drove to Camden and delivered 610 pairs of new socks for the men, women and children who attended the holiday meal.  It was a great event for families with children as there were art activities, …

On Friday November 16th a group of nurses from Villanova University’s Nursing Without Borders (NWB) visited the Catholic Worker clinic in the Kensington section of Philadlephia.  They attended to the feet of the homeless – warm soaking foot baths, massage, removing callouses, etc.  They served about 50 homeless men and women. The Joy of Sox …

O Magazine published a small blurb about Tom Costello Jr and The Joy of Sox.  This is so cool – December 2012 issue, page 42 on the bottom.  I do not have a link to the article yet, but here’s the story. “HEART AND SOLE – Helping the homeless get off on the right foot.  …

Rev. Chris Bishop, Pastor of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Radnor, PA had these nice words to say about Tom and The Joy of Sox. “Today I had one of those spine-tingling moments, when you see or hear something that sparks a deep recognition of another’s humanity and unexpectedly shakes your world. I met with Tom …

Seventy three Villanova University student athletes from the women’s field hockey and men’s soccer teams participated in the University’s Day of Service by sorting, boxing and inventorying 8,299 pairs of new socks!! And later in the afternoon student leaders delivered 2,024 pairs to several shelters in the Philadelphia area! This was truly a wonderful event …

Joy The Sock Puppet® now has her own official trademark!!  The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued registration number 4,174,257 on July 17, 2012. She is pretty excited about this and will probably celebrate by getting her hair done! She is also getting ready for her series of videos about the plight of …

This is really cool. Imagine every time that you shop online The Joy of Sox automatically gets a percentage of you purchase as a donation. All you have to do is click on the iGive logo on the right and sign up for the service with your browser.  Then whenever you shop for something on …

Much thanks to Ward Vanhaute, Prop Master for the Villanova University Theater Department for his spectacular creation of a muppet-like Joy. His ability to build a puppet better the puppet vision I had in my head was amazing. This is the video of me meeting Joy for the first time. I was so excited I almost cried.  But Joy …

Main Line Media News’s Alan Thomas stopped by at a recent sock sorting, pairing, packaging event.  He talked to a lot of people and took a lot of pictures. And his story got published!  Front page! Click here to read the story. Thanks Alan and all the volunteers who made the event possible!!

Sam Strike, host of Radnor21’s Radnor Patch, interviewed Tom about his nonprofit The Joy of Sox.  Afterwards Tom said that the experience was great, although he doesn’t see any expectations of an oscar nomination. He also thanked Sam, who made a personal donation of a bag of new socks.  Thanks Sam!!

After a few days for frustration our website is back up.  Not yet 100%, but almost there! A big THANK YOU to all who helped get us back on line.  But an even BIGGER thank you to our friends, volunteers and website viewers for your patience while we were offline!

Which one do you like?  Or don’t like? We are getting ready to do a “complete makeover” for Joy The Sock Puppet, our Official Sock Puppet. She plans to be our National Spokes Puppet for the plight of the homeless and the horrendous health problem they have because they do not have clean new socks. …

The Joy of Sox® was registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on July 16, 2011, registration number 3,997,348. The registration means that the name “The Joy Of Sox” is now protected under U.S. patent and trademark laws from others using the same name. The trademark is granted for: charitable services, namely, providing …

Contact: Tom Costello, Jr. Phone: 610-688-3318 Email:  Tom@TheJoyOfSox.org     FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Former High School Dropouts Give Back By Holding Bar-B-Que for the Homeless YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School Students Serving up Hot Dogs and…Sock! PHILADELPHIA, PA-May 12, 2011  ” What motivates out-of-school youth in Philadelphia to go back to school to earn a diploma? …

This is really humbling.  My undergraduate alma mater, Villanova University included my nonprofit, The Joy of Sox, in their Spring 2011 issue on service. What started out as an attempt to help out at a soup kitchen in Philly has really taken off.  And I’d like to thanks Father Peter for the introduction, and Mercedes …

The other day a friend told me about a homeless man he knew, but hadn’t seen him in a while. When he saw the man again the man was using crutches. My friend asked, “What happened?” . The homeless man went on to tell that he was walking around (as the homeless do to get …

This is a little long…but hopefully worthwhile. From what I have observed in the passionate dedicated people I’ve met in the nonprofit world is a special “attitude.” I really couldn’t put my finger on it, until I came across this article entitled “What is a Social Entrepreneur?”  So whether your mission is socks for the …

Isn’t collaboration great? Last week, to celebrate Tom’s Shoes, One Day Without Shoes awareness day, we set up a display exhibit in The Center on Central, in Paoli, PA. Britta Winans was on hand to talk about all the good work we do in helping provide socks for the homeless.   She even developed a …

Tonight we had a really nice event – a sock sorting party at the Shir Ami Congregation in Newtown, PA.  The event was organized by Gail Rose, and among the adult helpers that agreed to be photographed, were Rachel and Holly. The amazing thing was that 18 or so “energetic” third graders, and a handful …