Red Sox invite fans to bring socks this weekend to help the homeless

BOSTON, MA - This weekend, as part of the Red Sox and Red Sox Foundation will be collecting new, white athletic socks to benefit the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), which provides medical care to Boston's homeless men, women, and children. 

Through the 8th Annual "Sox for Socks" Drive, the organization seeks new, white socks that volunteers will collect at each Fenway Park gate before and during the games this Saturday, May 25, and Sunday, May 26, when the Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians. Both games are scheduled to begin at 1:35 p.m. 

Doctors and nurses from BHCHP will distribute the socks to patients they care for on the streets, park benches, and in shelters across Greater Boston. 

Gentle Giant Moving Co will donate supplies and cover transportation costs of collecting, storing, and delivering the socks to BHCHP clinics throughout the city.

The organization also helps raise awareness of how rain-soaked feet, ill-fitting shoes, constant standing, and diseases like diabetes take their toll on the feet of homeless people. BHCHP's nurses and physicians treat a range of foot ailments, from trench foot and skin infections to frostbite and other nail diseases. Doctors assert that clean, white socks are a staple of homeless health care.

Over the past seven years, the "Sox for Socks" drive has collected nearly 90,000 pairs of socks. Red Sox fans have also given more than $11,000 in cash donations during that time.  

BHCHP paid tribute to the Red Sox ownership's active support at their April 29 gala by bestowing the Tim Russert Award.