Rock-Your-Socks kindness appeal aims to collect thousands of pairs for Liverpool homeless

A Rock-Your-Socks appeal is aiming to show just how kind our city is by collecting thousands of pairs to give out to homeless people in Liverpool.

The idea came from author Sheryl Webster, who wrote Kindness Rocks for 4–8-year-olds to help them understand the importance of compassion.

The book features Jonny Heart — a rock star lion who befriends a homeless bear – and Sheryl was keen to turn that message into real life action.

In the past two years, she’s held Rock-Your-Socks Days in schools, getting children to swap their regular uniform socks for their own in return for donating a new adult pair to someone who needs them.

Now Sheryl, who lives in south Liverpool, wants to create a community-driven kindness  movement involving not just schools but businesses including offices, salons, gyms and cafes.

After collecting more than 1,000 socks in 2024, which were given to the Whitechapel Centre and Paper Cup Coffee to distribute, she’s aiming to double that number to help twice as many people this autumn/winter.

Former teacher Sheryl explains:

“Of all the things I’ve done with schools, young children really seem to grasp the concept of how horrible it is to have wet soggy socks. They do games and sport outside so they understand that it’s not a nice feeling.

“This is such a simple way for them to do something to help in a small way – the kids come into school in a pair of their own socks, silly ones if they want, and they bring in one pair or more in return then I collect them.

“In the first year we had 500 pairs, last year it was 1,000, so this year I thought, why just schools? Why not widen it out and try and get more people involved. Let’s show what Liverpool kindness looks like.”

Sheryl says one pair of new fresh socks might not seem like a big deal, but it can make a real difference to someone living on the street.

“Socks are one of the most-needed items for people experiencing homelessness. Paper Cup Coffee has a little basket in their coffee shop with socks in and as quickly as they fill it up, they go.

“People might not think donating one pair would have any effect, but once all those socks are put together it grows. For every one person who donates, there’s a homeless person out there who will have cold wet feet and those socks will make a difference to them.

“Kindness spreads just from one person doing one small thing for someone else.”

Here’s how to get involved in Rock-Your-Socks between now and October…

Schools: Host a Rock-Your-Socks Day where pupils wear fun socks to school and bring a pair to donate.

Businesses: Collect socks from staff or customers, run a sock-themed day, or partner as a donation drop point.

Everyone: Donate a pair and help to spread the word!

To join in the Rock-Your-Socks appeal, or to arrange collection, contact Sheryl via Instagram.

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