Marquette Alternative High School students pack a school bus full of socks for their Rock the Socks campaign. This is the 13th year of the donation campaign and this year saw the MAHS students gather more than 7,000 pairs for five Marquette charities. (Journal photo by Antonio Anderson)

MARQUETTE — Marquette Alternative High School students have hauled boxes upon boxes of socks to donate to Marquette charity organizations.

The students were delivering the collected and donated socks from MAHS’ 13th Rock the Socks campaign, which saw the students collect 7,783 pairs in two to three weeks.

It was orchestrated by MAHS teacher Cynthia DePetro who began this charity event 13 years ago after being inspired from her class at the time.

“So it was actually students in the past from Marquette Alternative, I want to give them the credit,” said DePetro.

The students put in a lot of time and effort to gather socks for those in the community who struggle with getting clothes.

“We have the community get together and donate socks,” said MAHS junior Violet Mattson. “We did fliers this year to promote that. Then we deliver the socks to all the houses that need it like: Beason House, the Warming Center, Janzen House and all those places. It’s just a really nice thing to do, because most people (in need) don’t have socks.”

MAHS sophomore Gracie Yeiter added that out of all of the clothes donated to charity, the most lacking are socks, even though they are very important to stay healthy, especially in the winter months.

“It feels really good, it feels like we are making a difference,” Yeiter said.

The MAHS students loaded a school bus full of the collected clothes and headed to donate them at the Marquette St. Vincent de Paul Society Store, Janzen House, Women’s Center, Room at the Inn and Beacon House. The students were very hands-on in the collection and the gathering of the donated items.

“We do all of the boxes, we organize things and do the fliers,” Mattson said. “I feel really lucky to be a part of this because it is helping out our community and I love doing that, I love helping people.”