SOCKING IT TO THEM
Jessica Baird, who founded The Sock Project, has delivered thousands of socks to people, like herself, who are battling chronic illness and autoimmune diseases.
When Ottawa's Jessica Baird decided she wanted to spread joy and happiness to people with chronic illnesses, she jumped in with both feet.
Both sock-clad feet, that is. Baird's “Sock Project” has delivered thousands of socks to people, like herself, who are battling chronic illness and autoimmune diseases.
“It's just something fun that allows you to take a little bit of control of the situation,” Baird said. “There you are sitting on the examination table and you can look down at your fun socks.”
Three years ago, Baird began experiencing “really weird symptoms” that doctors originally worried might be Hodgkin lymphoma. It took nearly a year, but she was eventually diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a progressive arthritis-like autoimmune disease that can cause the bones of the spine to fuse. Baird was feeling blue when a friend who suffered from lupus, another autoimmune disease, planted the seed of an idea.
“She said, `Go get yourself a pair of fun socks and wear them to appointments,'” Baird said. The friend then gave her a pair of funky socks emblazoned with the slogan: “Fight like a girl.”
“It's really amazing how much of a conversation it starts with doctors,” Baird said. “They love the idea. It lightens the situation and suddenly you're on a better page with a doctor or a resident who you've never even seen before. It really helps with communication, and sometimes with doctors communication can be a difficult thing.”
When her illness forced Baird to leave her job as an elementary school teacher, her friends reached out and asked how they could help. Her reply? “Send me some socks.”
What began as a trickle became a flood.
“I kept getting socks from people, and I was, `OK, this is getting funny.' And it just kept going and going,” said Baird, who bubbles with enthusiasm and ends nearly every sentence with an infectious laugh.
“Then it got to a point where there were people connected with other people, and then sock companies got involved and it was, `Here's some more socks!' And I thought, `OK, what am I going to do with all these? I need to come up with a plan.'”
Baird, 32, started to reach out on social media to people and began mailing out pairs of socks to them. She estimates she's received and shipped between 3,000 and 4,000 pairs of socks, and spent about $10,000 on the project. She runs The Sock Project out of the Britannia apartment where she lives with her boyfriend, juggling it with her job teaching in the faculty of education at the University of Ottawa and pursuing her Master of Divinity degree.
“We have a two-bedroom apartment and the second bedroom is basically all socks,” she said. “If we ever have someone come and stay with us, it's going to be pretty embarrassing. They'll be surrounded by socks.”
She says the letters, cards and emails of thanks she has received from recipients have made it all worth it.
Though there is no cure for ankylosing spondylitis, it can be treated with immunosuppressants, such as prednisone and the cancer drug methotrexate.
“Taking immunosuppressants in the middle of a pandemic is interesting,” she quips.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Baird in another way, too. She had been invited by the pop band Imagine Dragons to join them on their tour to talk about The Sock Project and community building. AS is much more common in men than women, and Imagine Dragons' lead singer and guitarist, Dan Reynolds, also suffers from AS and Crohn's disease, a related illness. That tour was put on hold because of COVID-19. Plans for Baird to appear on the Ellen DeGeneres show were also sidelined by the pandemic.
For more information, visit The Sock Project website at the-sockproject.webnode.com Baird also has a gofundme page to help pay for the cost of socks and shipping.