Socks for The Homeless

A few days ago I received a reality check about people who are experiencing homelessness in the winter.  What happened began with me waiting in my car, heat blasting, waiting for my favorite coffee shop to finally open. My whole body was freezing from the cold. I was wearing three sweaters, pj's under my sweatpants, and two layers of socks under my weather boots.  As a Southerner, we really don't do that well in the cold and they don't normally sell clothes designed for extreme weather around here.  Even though it's in no way as extreme as the North, that particular day we were experiecing strong winds, icy roads, and a temperature below the 30's.  We aren't prepared for such weather but I'll get into that more in a bit.  As I was waiting in my car, a man came up and started to strike up a conversation with my sister and I. He was barely wearing anything and you could tell something was wrong. He said, "Good morning young ladies, I swear I'm no trouble and I'm not going to hurt you but I was just wondering if you have anything extra that could keep me warm. I don't have any socks and I can't feel my toes because I'm so cold." That's the moment I got my reality check.  It only took me a few minutes to get to the shelter of my car from my apartment that morning and by the time I was safely in the drivers seat, my toes had immediately started to get cold despite the 2 layers of socks I put under my boots. This man, he had nothing and had been outside for who knows how long. I told him I was wearing an extra pair and he could have them if he wanted them and he just started thanking me over and over again. I gave him my favorite pair of purple winter socks and he wouldn't stop thanking me. I watched as he went across the street and put them on his feet. A few minutes later he came back over and knocked on my window and told me that his toes were feeling much better. Ya'll it was freezing out there, I know that one pair of socks isn't going to cut it for that man or for the rest of the people experiencing homelessness in the winter. So with that in mind, I wanted to do something to help. I wanted to collect socks and give them out to people since we still have a few weeks of cold weather ahead of us. Although I'm funding the majority of it myself, I wanted to ask anyone if they would consider donating a few dollars to help get socks/hand warmers/warm clothes for the homeless population in the Columbia area. This will only be helping a small percentage of the people who are homeless in South Carolina.  In 2016, it was estimated that 5,050 persons were experiencing homelessness. 
My goal is to collect $100 by January 31, 2018 so I can continue to purchase warm items for the people of Columbia.  Even if you aren't able to donate a few dollars here, please just consider donating clothes or money to your local shelters so that people are able to stay warm this year. Thank you all for your time and effort!