Socks, slime, and student charity in New West

Imagine a world where socks, student generosity, and slime collide.

Well—it's actually happened.

The Socktober campaign at F.W. Howay managed to draw nearly 600 pairs of socks. The initiative is part of Howay Helping Hands, which allows youngsters to give back to the community.

"This [was] our first Socktober since before COVID, since 2019, and a lot of kids didn't know anything about it ... we did start out small just in case, and the kids thought we should go for 100 socks. We met that goal the first day," says Janet Dupuis, teacher-librarian at F.W. Howay.

After the kids met the goal fairly quickly, Dupuis said they decided to set another goal of 200. The goal, which Dupuis calls a "super goal," was met within the same week.

"We decided to go for a mega goal ... which was 500. We were close to 600, and our principal [had] agreed that if we did make our super goal she would agree to be slimed."

Three Grade 5 girls, who had volunteered from start to finish, were not only responsible for counting the socks twice a week and recording the totals on a massive poster so that everyone could keep track of their progress—they also had the honour of creating the gooey concoction.

Many of the students children cheered each other on as they made and decorated paper socks, while writing out encouraging messages to make sure they smashed their super goal.

While there was an opportunity for principal Sarah Phelan to escape her mucky fate—by guessing which Halloween candies were in five separate bags—she failed. Dupuis says Phelan got every single goody right—except for the treat in the final bag.

"The kids went wild because she almost guessed all of them ... there was this huge build-up, and when she got that one wrong, the place erupted," explained Dupuis, adding that the school of 110 students sounded more like an arena of thousands as the green concoction oozed its way onto their principal.

'You're never too small or too young to make a difference'

While Dupuis notes the students had fun being competitive, it was their giving spirit that she continues to be inspired by.

"They were so keen to know that they were helping people right in their community," notes Dupuis, who as a teacher-librarian, has a class of her own that she teaches. "We talked about, 'How does someone become homeless?' 'How can we help people?' Every person has a story, and it has connections."

Dupuis says they began the month of October with a story called The Lady in the Box, a book about two kids who know of a woman who lives near their home. The kids are worried about the woman, Lizzie, who lives in a box over a warm air vent, and they begin to sneak food and clothes out of their home to her.

"[We asked our students], 'Have you seen anybody like that?' 'How do you think they got there?' We read the story; some of the older kids wrote an epilogue, some wrote a prologue about what her story could have been," says Dupuis.

And while the students at F.W. Howay are being commended for the nearly 600 pairs of socks that will make their way to Lookout Society, Dupuis agrees there's so much we can learn from these children.

"I think the message that the kids are getting ... is to be the change you want to see in the world. It's on my wall [in my classroom]. And the other one would be, 'You're never too small or too young to make a difference.' Everyone can make a difference, no matter how small it is."

To learn more about the giving initiatives at F.W. Howay, be sure to visit the school's online page.