Sometimes I accompany my roommate, Nancy, on appointments at a hospital pain clinic for her back. After her first appointment, in 2005, we asked the nurse what would happen to the thick slip-proof socks they had given her during treatment.
“You can take them home,” she told us. “We’ll just throw them away.”
That seemed wasteful, so Nancy asked the nurse if the clinic would be willing to collect the socks and save them for us. The nurse said she’d call when she had a couple bags’ worth for us to take.
Nancy and I washed the socks before dividing them among bags we had around the house—newspaper bags, produce bags, grocery bags— and delivering them to shelters and churches, anywhere people turn for warmth and protection.
That first nurse got other hospital departments on board, so we’ve been able to keep a lot of feet warm over the past 14 years. Why throw out something that could help others?
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