Shoe Sensation donates socks to active military personnel and veterans
Shoe Sensation did a Christmas wreath display behind their counter at the Coshocton store. Pictured l-r: Terri Sheck, Denise Hardy, Lori Wright, Rachelle Bible, and Cortana Bible, Rachelle’s niece.
COSHOCTON – Anyone who has served in the military or worked outdoors in difficult conditions understands the difference dry, clean socks can make. While the military provides clothing including socks, extra socks are one of the top requests of U.S. personnel overseas. Shoe Sensation, located in the downtowner plaza on Second Street in Coshocton, is committed to making sure they can provide for our active military personnel and veterans.
“The military and veterans, to me, they deserve all the recognition and help they can get,” said Denise Hardy, store manager. “They’re the reason we can live our lives the way we do. Sometimes, I feel the veterans get left out.”
This was the first time Shoe Sensation announced that the Socks for Troops program would be company-wide. It was started a couple of years ago by a district manager in Pennsylvania and this year, the company decided to extend it to all of their stores. The company set a goal of 65,000 pairs of socks and as of press time, they were a little short of goal at 61,081. They also set goals for each store, and locally, they were 81 percent to goal.
From Nov. 1 through Christmas Eve, Shoe Sensation offered a 20 percent discount on socks purchased for donation to the Socks for Troops program. While new unworn socks purchased elsewhere could be donated, Shoe Sensation had secured a special selection of military approved socks that meet the requirements for active duty which can be purchased to donate to our active duty troops overseas.
Shoe Sensation is partnering with Jerry “Bubba” Colbert to distribute the socks collected. Colbert travels to various VA hospitals to hand out socks donated. Last year, the socks went to the VA at Cleveland Clinic.
Shoe Sensation keeps its employees on their toes by doing Facebook contests throughout the year. Recently, they had a contest for Veteran’s Day where each store took pictures of local veterans or military personnel with the store’s sock display. The photo with the most Facebook likes received a gift card for a pizza party or to stock up their refrigerator with snacks.
“It’s nice that the company does fun things throughout the year,” said Hardy. “It shows they appreciate you and it’s nice to do something fun.”
Another Facebook contest the store recently entered was a Christmas contest where the “O” in “Shoe” had to be made into a holiday wreath.
“We didn’t win,” said Hardy. “But we had fun doing it. We’ve had so many compliments on it.”
The wreath took five and a half hours to make and features the Grinch and his little dog Max. The idea came from employee Rachelle Bible.
“We were thinking of doing a snowman,” said Hardy. “But Rachelle said that’s overrated. Let’s do the Grinch.”
The Christmas wreath display is located behind the counter in the store, to the left as soon as customers walk in.
The store also had a Salvation Army angel tree with 31 angels. All the angels were filled and every child got shoes and socks for Christmas.
Category: Business
