Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the 8th graders at Kickemuit Middle School relied on their go-to Yankee Candle fundraisers to raise all the money required for their yearly field trips. However, due to the pandemic, Yankee Candle Fundraising was forced to shut down permanently and the 8th grade needed to come up with a new way to raise money.

When staff members were trying to brainstorm new ways to help the grade raise money, Andrea Chase, a special educator at KMS, suggested a company she’d been hearing about called We Help Two. We Help Two is a fundraising platform that partners with various schools and organizations to sell socks with crazy and unique patterns on them, but each transaction helps benefit two different causes. The other staff members thought it sounded great, so they decided to try it out as the 8th grade’s first fundraiser since before the pandemic.

As an online fundraiser, people went to We Help Two’s website to purchase socks. During the checkout process, it gave supporters the option to buy a pair to donate to someone in need, so the school received half of the purchase price and a pair of socks was donated. It wasn’t until the conclusion of the fundraiser that the staff at KMS realized the tremendous success their new fundraising idea really was.

The 8th graders ended up raising $4,072 from the fundraiser, with an additional $945 being directly donated to the grade by parents and teachers. Additionally, there were nearly 300 pairs of socks donated through the fundraiser. All of these donated socks were delivered directly to KMS and will be distributed to local charities and families in need by the school’s Community Service Club.

It’s safe to say that the 8th grade at Kickemuit Middle School has their new go-to fundraiser for the future.

This article was written by the Bristol Warren Regional School District