Soft place to stand
She thinks about how cold those who live on the street must be.
"Because some of them don't even have shoes," said Hannah, sitting next to about 300 pairs of socks she has collected under her Christmas tree. "Socks are incredibly important when it's cold."
Staunch in her mission, the sixth-grader is asking friends, relatives and anyone willing for packages of new socks in lieu of birthday gifts.
She turns 11 on Thursday.
The idea of collecting socks for the homeless was born on her seventh birthday, four years ago.
Hannah, whose mother serves on the St. Mary's Interfaith Community Services board of directors, often helps serve food at the downtown dining hall.
On one of those visits, she learned that although St. Mary's distributes 120 to 150 pairs of socks every day, sock donations are hard to obtain. St. Mary's buys most of them.