Sock It To Me! British Columbia -Lower Mainland Faction

A publication of The Lost Left Sock Foundation

Vol. 7-No. 7, Winter 1999/2000

"Most have feet. Even those without feet still need socks for their stubs. So, why can't all who want and need socks -have socks?"
-(S. J. Sükkhos) Founder and President

Who Are We?

              The LLSF is a not-for-big-profit organization dedicated to the finding of lost left socks (LLS)and reuniting them with their counterparts and owners, the relocation of socks to those in need, and educating the public in how to take care of their socks and prevent their loss.

The Web Site

              Since our organization is volunteer based there often isn't enough human resources available to keep our W.W.W. Site up to date, but we will make every attempt to make sure you are all kept informed of the latest news. So, don't fret and think that we've forgotten, are just lazy, uncaring, or don't do our job -as the populace seems to think of everything we do. That just isn't so. Our priority is staying in direct contact with the needy and trying to meet their, often overwhelming- especially in winter months, demand. This consists of a lot of hands on work in tracking down sponsors, finding LLS, managing reunions, and getting donations to the people who need them most. This means that there is less time for us to keep everyone outside our area informed on the most up to date happenings, but rest assured, we, on average, up-date on a bimonthly basis. So keep those donations and reunion applications coming in for they are the building blocks of our organization.

Success To Date

              To date millions of socks have made it to the needy via the LLSF thanks to our caring volunteers, supporters, and sponsors. Typically, once a sizable amount of socks have been obtained, we divide them up and deliver them to various shelters throughout the Lower Mainland making sure there's an even distribution to all areas, not just the downtown core areas. Our efforts have proved so overwhelmingly successful here at the a Lower Mainland LLSF that we have spawned a faction to open in Japan as a direct result.

Expansion

              A long time volunteer Tai Katasankyo, Tai San- as she was called, took the knowledge she gained here back to her native Japan in an attempt to emulate what we have accomplished here. Now, since 1995, she has proven there are needy people everywhere and, likewise, others willing to help. "Congradulations!" Visit their page at L.L.S.F. -Osaka Faction.

Our Founder

              The LLSF was the brain child of S. J. Sükkhos. Descendent of his father -a Greek born fisherman and mother -born Canadian of English immigrants, he grew up in the Maritimes of Canada's East Coast.
              When he was old enough, since he disliked fish, he moved to Montreal. Then later he found himself in Toronto, too many 'Frenchists'. But the one thing from his hometown he felt detached from the most, besides the fish -which was a good thing, was the ocean. Winter and ocean soon drove him to Vancouver where he found the seasons suitable for sustaining human life, plus fish and 'Frenchists' easily avoidable. It wasn't long until he found himself unemployed and on welfare. Seemed his education was good for nothing as far as employment was concerned and experience being a big part of everything else. Unfortunately all his experience was on a boat alongside his father -he wanted no part of fish. He eventually, after many wasted years, managed to prove his boating skills and got odd jobs in the boating industry. He loved the ocean, but not while on the job (fishing with his father was more of a meaningful 'livelihood' to support family and friends while 'work' is only directed to the owner of such work). The ocean was something to be reserved for personal freedom and enlightenment, not working as a slave for pittance. In his free time he would want to get away from he ocean. This sickened him. So, inevitably, he quit.
              Wasting the next years of his life, he at least had the ocean back. Soon he needed socks. But money for food and other necessities always took priority. Sewing them up only made them a smaller fit and very uncomfortable. Wasn't long until he found himself looking to the local distributor of clothes for the needy, but socks were scarce. It was the same everywhere he went. So he, one day while shopping for a sale on socks, happened to mention to the manager of the store, who was nearby, about the lack of cheap socks and the lack of them for the local needy. He sparked the manager's interest. Seems the manager couldn't price them so low without losing profit, but with a tax deductible donation of socks he could actually make a more money more quickly than selling at a reduced cost. The manager's compassionate donation won him over. Sükkhos decided to dedicate his time to helping the needy get the socks they deserved. Finding other such compassionate business managers and owners became his obsession.
              After taking the best socks for himself, he gave the rest to the needy. He quickly became known at all the distributors of clothes to the needy and got a full-time job at one such place. A sock department was created and he found himself with socks and pay-cheque to boot. He was in heaven. Soon his sock department was overwhelmed and needed to expand office and storage space. The building nor the organization could support such a thing. So he set off on his own to create "Sock It To Me!"(now the title of our newsletter) in 1990, now known as the LLSF. These humble beginnings have spawned a number of other affiliated subsidiaries to spring-up over the years. With 42 factions, the majority are located in Canada or the USA, but 3 of which are located overseas. This goes to show that business and compassion really do go hand-in-hand.

How Can You Help?

Volunteer

We are often in need of volunteers. Just contact us and see if any are needed at that time and we will be sure to get you involved.

Donate

As stated before, donations are the foundation of this orgnization. The more the better. Winter, which can be very long in many places, is when we give out more socks than we get in. Stocking up over the summer is a necessity.

Spread The Word

Getting our name out there and letting people know that we exist is a major element to any orgainization. Since our budget is very limited, advertising to the masses just isn't an option we can afford. Word or mouth is our main avenue of advertisement.

Support

We have built the foundation and it is now standing on it's own two legs, but it needs continuous support to stay steady. There is typically a boom with donations in December, but by then winter is already half over. A steady stream of support is what we need most.

What Socks Are Best?

              Socks that are suitable for winter conditions are needed most. Preferably not stinky and dirty. Although beggars can't be choosers, our volunteers would rather not handle such things. Hiking or work socks tend to be very good, but also athletic socks that wick away moisture are also excellent. Otherwise, any will do. Something is better than nothing.

Reunion Programme

              This programme is where the new title of our organization derived from. "Sock It To Me", the previous and origional name, became so well known for this programme that it was in the best interests of the promotion of our cause to change the name to something that people could more easily recognise and associate us with.
              This programme was also the creative idea of our founder, S. J. Sükkhos. He saw so many unmatched single socks being donated that he wondered where all of the partners to these singles went. A personal investigation insued.
              Sükkhos discovered in the bulk of his experiments and coutless interviews with everyday people that these socks either "made their escape" or had been "snatched", as he said, sometime after or possibly during being washed. Since no one checked their washing for missing items between washing and drying, no one noticed until the sorting process of dry clothes was well under way. So it was quite concievable that the dirty laundry hamper or the dryer could have been the culperate until that is, Sükkhos, determined to find an answer, monitered items as they were transfered between the different stages of washing in a large number of volunteer households.

            "These single missing socks definately have dissapeared during the drying process. Whether they be machine or clothes-line dried is apparently not of importance."

              His passion for finding a solution, although not understanding the dissapearances, drove him forward spawning the "Reunion Programme".
              It's aim was, and is, to find all the lost left socks that had all so mysteriously dissapeared. The process of finding missing socks consists of:

• First, registering a discription and detailed accout of it's last whereabouts.

• Second, this information is put on our computer cross-reference database (origionally tediously and methodically done on paper by Sükkhos himself). If someone else has registered the same physical description of as your sock, there will be an immediate connection. Typically there are dozens of similar descriptions that have to be carefully examined to find the most likely matches.

• Third, after narrowing down the prospects, the councilor assigned your case will make direct contact to obtain more detailed information that will hopefull lead to a solved case. All the while you will be kept well informed as your case progress.

              If you feel the need to speed-up the process there is an additional step available. The Active Search. This step is taken on by a councilor that will do some investigation into your specific case. You can of couse do your own search, but our councilors have a vast database and government connections that can greatly increase the chances of us finding your missing sock(s).

(note: a seperate registration must employed for each individual sock)

              Sükkhos, all the while in the midst of his non-apparent mental breakdown, achieved this great feat of organizational skills. Although Súkkhos doesn't contact the outside world much anymore, we know he is alive and well, and we thank him for his great deal of work and generosity in hiring us.

-From the staff at LLSF

Scocasso! Index Page Copyright notice on index page

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page