In 2019, in El Paso, TX, we gifted 1,337 pairs of pinksocks to an elementary school in El Paso where a 1st grade teacher named Zelene Blancas had begun using pinksocks as part of her social-emotional learning curriculum. Teaching children about kindness, empathy, connection, cooperation, compassion, inclusion, diversity, anti-bullying……you know, the stuff that grows good humans.
The following year, COVID would hit the world, and our 1st grade teacher Ms. Blancas spent 11 weeks in the ICU. She had her 35th birthday in the ICU, and on December 28, 2020 Ms. Blancas died in the ICU from COVID. Her death was a terrible loss…..it still is. Local media in El Paso picked up her story, then national media, and then international media…..and by the end of January 2021 we had been contacted by 20 schools from around the country who wanted pinksocks to continue the legacy of teaching kindness that Ms. Blancas had started at Dr. Sue A. Shook Elementary in El Paso, TX.
There are now over 30 schools (preK-high school) in 9 states that are using pinksocks as part of their kindness curriculum.
Each school picks a day of the week that they wear their pinksocks each week. Students, teachers, admin staff, cafeteria workers, coaches, security guards…..everyone on campus wears their pinksocks, and each grade has a class period dedicated to teaching the attributes of kindness.
Andrew and I had absolutely no idea that those first pairs of pinksocks that we gifted in Chicago in 2015 would become a global movement about spreading love and kindness. The ethos of kindness that is at the heart of the pinksocks movement transcends geopolitical boundaries and political ideologies. We are all global citizens. We can’t combat fear with fear. We must support teachers in teaching children to love themselves and each other.
We are grateful to be a part of helping these teachers, and we are grateful for all the donors, foundations, sponsors, and philanthropists who see and understand the exponential ripple effect that teaching children to be kind has across the continuum of their life, their family’s life, their community, their state, their country, the world……all of us. The ROI is immeasurable. Please help us as we continue to gift pinksocks to all the schools in the queue who want them. We are grateful for the teachers…..and for you.
