Bethel Park police collect thousands of pairs of socks for Pittsburgh area charity

Bethel Park police recently partnered with a Pittsburgh nonprofit to collect socks for the city’s homeless and raise awareness of the department’s K-9 unit.

Officers were able to obtain 3,464 pairs of socks from three collection sites and two community events.

They were donated to Socks with a Mission, a charity founded last February by Amy Wetterau and her daughter, Audrey, 11, both of Upper St. Clair.

Drive organizer Detective Joelle Dixon credited K-9 officer Drew Jacobs and his partner Jeez, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, for doing most of the leg work with school visits and demonstrations.

“We were very overwhelmed by the donations in the community,” Dixon said. “It was very successful. We had a ton of interest.”

Wetterau said Bethel Park’s drive was a record-breaker.

“It was our largest drive to date,” she said. “It was just amazing. I guess that’s what happens when you put a dog and a kid together. It’s a winning combination. We didn’t expect to get quite that many socks, but we’re really glad that we did.”

Dixon said not many people know her department has a police dog, and helping out a charity was a great way to interact with people.

“We wanted to do something so the community can see how valuable police dogs are,” she said.

Collection sites included the police department, community center, Evy True Value Hardware and No-Cook Tuesdays, a food truck event at the community center on April 13 and April 20.

The drive, itself, was from April 11-25. Bombas, a sock company, chipped in with a 250 pair donation.

Police posted several sock drive updates on the department’s Facebook page to help keep contributions coming.

Wetterau and Dixon know each other through their children’s activities.

Dixon’s daughter, Alexandra, 16, rides American quarter horses with Audrey at Caustelot Farms in Cecil.

The girls also participate in horse riding competitions.

“We met at the barn,” said Wetterau. “We both have horses there. Our kids are just horse nuts.”

Conversations escalated from the barn to the police station and likely future sock drives.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” Wetterau said. “We are finding there is such a huge need in Pittsburgh (for socks), and now we’re branching out to Erie and Youngstown, Ohio shelters. The demand seems to be greater than ever.”

She said so far this year they expect to have given out about 19,000 pairs of socks by the end of May.

SWAM also partnered with Plum Rotary earlier this year to collect socks. They collected just over 3,000 pairs.

Wetterau said her daughter first thought of collecting socks in 2019 after an Elementary Student Leadership Academy class in which her Upper St. Clair teacher talked about kindness and his efforts helping the homeless.

Support began to build, and they were able to expand into a charity.

More information is available at sockswithamission.org.