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As a perk, this Bright Futures affiliate community likes to give out socks with the shoes they send out to meet immediate student needs.  Ashley Fulmer, Bright Futures Coordinator for West Fork School District, said, “…we like to give our socks with the shoes because most of the students that didn’t have appropriate shoes also didn’t have socks.”

One of the highest requested items for @BrightFuturesWestfork in 2017 was shoes.  The members of the Bright Futures West Fork (AR) Advisory Board began brainstorming ways to prepare for the anticipated needs for 2018.

Some of the members of the Advisory Board had seen a similar “Sock Toss” done during NBA games and brought the idea to the table. Fulmer went on to say, “We all agreed that it would be a fun, easy way to get {the} socks we needed, advertise our new Bright Futures initiative, and get the community involved.” Bright Futures West Fork is a first-year Bright Futures affiliate community, holding their official kick-off event this past June.

As this community worked to set up their local initiative, they worked closely with @BrightFuturesPraireGrove for guidance. It seemed fitting that they would partner together for this epic “Tiger Sock Toss” at a basketball game where the two schools would be rivals!

“The toss was scheduled to take place in between the junior boys and senior high girls basketball games. The night of the toss, our Superintendent said a few words about Bright Futures and how it was helping our community.” After he spoke, he took the honor of tossing the first pair of socks out onto the court!

Fulmer shared, “The cheerleaders stood by the tubs to help pick up socks that didn’t make it into the tub and to cheer on participants tossing socks.  Anyone that brought socks had the opportunity to toss them onto the court.”

After the game, the Advisory Board members counted the socks and found over 700 pairs!!  Simply amazing!  The two Bright Futures affiliate communities split the loot in half, so each took home 350 pairs!

The next day a need request came in for a student who had stepped in the mud and needed new socks. Need covered!

Watch the sock toss here!