Mary Crosby was exhausted after delivering nearly 19,000 pairs of fresh socks to shelters around HRM, Friday, making it her largest donation yet.

The ‘Queen of Socks’ donates to places like Souls Harbour and the Byrony House, to help keep feet warm and clean on the unhoused.

This year her goal was to collect 14,000 pairs, but she surpassed that by roughly 5,000, thanks to help from the community and her Facebook page Socks for Shelters.

Despite being tired, she tells our newsroom, she will keep going.

“It’s been a crazy, crazy time…believe me…but in a good way. We’re good. We’re still collecting and we’re still delivering.”

Surpassed her goal

Crosby has had enormous success with her initiative.

It started four years ago with a goal of 100 pairs and has since grown to a size and a notoriety, she never would have expected.

“I mean, we added over 5,000 people to the [Facebook] group this year. We were in a restaurant last week. My husband and I are sitting there and as the waitress gets closer to us, I could tell that she was talking directly to me. She’s got a 50 in her hand. Then I could hear her saying, ‘I know you. I follow you. I want to help.’ And she hands me a $50 bill.”

And it doesn’t stop there.

“I’m in the lineup at Costco last week and literally had $1,700 worth of donations to spend…and the cart was heaving, and of course the lineup was to the back of the store and customers are commenting. Well, I’m proud of this. I tell the story. By the time I got up to that front cashier a gentleman had pulled out a $100 bill and handed it to me. Two women took socks out and put them in theirs and when I got up to the cash, they had already paid for them on the other side. Cashiers were crying, the girl loading the cart was crying, I was crying. It was overwhelming in such a good way.”

Still accepting donations

The original cut off for donations for this year was December 5, but the money keeps rolling in, with a couple of large deposits on the way.

Crosby says, they will continue delivering socks until the holidays are over, then any more funding that comes in after that, will go toward next year.

“I mean people are here and giving and I’m not going to stop taking, right? I’ll always find a place to put them.”

She says she never expected this to grow into what it is, but says the need is there and has grown so much, since she started.

Regarding all of the generosity, Crosby says simply, “there are no words.”