Over at Operation Nightwatch in Seattle, they call Terry Pepple the “Sock King.”

For the last two decades or so, the 35-year member of the Congregational Church on Mercer Island has spearheaded a successful sock drive for the unhoused through the nonprofit Operation Nightwatch.

Longtime Mercer Island resident Bud Palmberg, who passed away in 2019, founded the outreach organization in 1967 to help feed, comfort and locate housing for people in need on the streets of Seattle.

Congregational Church on MI’s Pastor Rev. Jennifer Castle said that Pepple continues to tirelessly organize the drive, which has reached beyond a goal of 5,000 pairs at press time and Pepple hopes to have more than 8,000 pairs headed to those in need by Christmas. All the socks are dropped off at Operation Nightwatch, which held its Sock It to Homelessness open house on Dec. 7.

“We had such an outpouring of support this year from not just the congregation, but from the wider Mercer Island community and beyond of people donating socks and money to buy socks that I’m going to have to put in another order (to a mill in Alabama),” said Pepple, who added that he is part of the church’s Social and Climate Justice Committee.

The church helped get Operation Nightwatch off to a massive start with its campaign with an order of 360 dozen pairs of socks shipped directly from the mill to the nonprofit.

Along with sock donations — which began rolling in last month — the church received more than $5,000 from community members to purchase more socks.

“It’s kind of my pet project to kind of shepherd it through. But the people who are doing the donating are the ones doing the heavy lifting. I give them all the credit,” said Pepple, who lives in Normandy Park with his wife, Lisa.

Regarding how receiving a clean pair of socks affects people, Pepple noted: “You’d be amazed at the impact that has on somebody who’s walking around outside with cold, wet feet. It brings a smile to their face,” and gives people a figurative hug.

When Operation Nightwatch Executive Director Frank DiGirolamo — a deacon at St. Monica Catholic Church on Mercer Island — thinks about the sock drive, he notes that the Island is an amazing and loving community that helps others.

At Operation Nightwatch, socks open the door to friendship, to nightly hot meals and to the nonprofit’s running of two emergency shelters (one for men and one for women) said DiGirolamo, who added: “It’s opening up a lot of healing in many ways, but especially relationally. When Mercer Island Congregation says, ‘We want to do socks,’ that tells me that they are a people who care and they love — and socks open the door.”

St. Monica parishioners have donated socks and provided financial sponsorships during the drive, and a group from the church regularly cooks and serves hot meals in the evenings at Operation Nightwatch.

By collecting socks each year, Castle said this is one way that her church strives to respond to community and worldwide needs with practical deeds of love and compassion.

“It has been so meaningful to invite the Mercer Island community to be part of this effort, as I’ve met more than one person in the last few weeks who donated socks at our front door and thanked us for the opportunity to contribute,” Castle said. “These are difficult times, and people are searching for impactful ways to provide help. I’m so proud of this small-but-growing church and its powerful ability to make a difference.”

For more information, visit: https://www.ucc-ccmi.org/general-5.