Today is National Philanthropy Day, a day to celebrate everyone committed to making a difference in their communities. The word philanthropy means, "the love of humankind," and the University of Alberta School of Dentistry's staff and students certainly have demonstrated their philanthropic spirit this week.
A competition was set to see which class could raise the most socks and within days, socks by the dozens were coming in. Inspired to beat last year's total of 510 pairs donated, this year a whopping total of 3,000 pairs of socks were collected.
More than 100 students, faculty and staff from the School of Dentistry took part in a sock fight on November 14 to have some fun with their collection before laundering and donating the socks to Boyle McCauley Health Centre in support of the Student Health Initiative for the Needs of Edmonton (SHINE).
SHINE is a student-run clinic in the inner city providing free dental care to individuals. SHINE clinics run every Saturday and the team consists of students from each of the four-years of the dentistry program and a preceptor. The preceptor is a licensed dentist from the community who volunteers their time.
Third year dental student and co-chair of the SHINE program, Travis MacLean, said patients often line up an hour before the clinic doors open just to ensure they get a spot on the treatment list.
"Waiting outside in the summer may not be an issue, but the situation becomes more serious in the cold of winter," said MacLean. "The amazing generosity demonstrated through this sock drive enables us to combat the issue of patients braving the elements and hopefully make the lives of our patients and their families a little bit easier."
"The sock drive allows us to give back to our community while having some fun," says Sherri Kessels, academic teaching services team lead and the organizer of the event.