Sue's socks warm feet, honour legacy of volunteerism one pair at a time

When the family of Susan Miller was suddenly faced with living without her magnetic energy, they didn't have to look far for a way to honour the woman they loved.

"Sue was my aunt and she was also a very interested member of the community. She would make lots of donations, was always pulling people together," especially to do things for other people in St. John's,said Ashley MacDonald.

MacDonald said Miller died "quite suddenly, after a very short illness" in January.

"She very much lived life to the fullest and was really full of energy and love," MacDonaldtold CBC Radio's On the Go.

That love inspired Miller to start an initiative for her 56th birthday, after meeting a woman on the mainland who was putting together Christmas stockings in the summer for vulnerable people.

She wanted to get 56 pairs of stocks stuffed with personal-care items like deodorant, shampoo, sunscreen, "anything that you need to get ready, basically," explained MacDonald.

Miller tripled her goal that year, gathering more than 150 pairs of socks "quietly from her living room," just with help from her friends and family.

'Overwhelming' support

MacDonald said her aunt's birthday was June 25.

"It's perfect timing, six months after Christmas, donations are running out in a lot of the non-profits."

"This year would have been her 60th birthday, and in memory of her desire to celebrate her birthday with these socks, we're trying to make it even bigger than it was before," she said.

They're hoping to get 60 dozen pairs of filledsocks to mark the 60 candles that would have been on Miller's birthdaycake this year.

"We've had so many people reach out and ask, 'Can we have a donation box? Can we have posters? How can we help?' It's been really overwhelming and really amazing," MacDonald said.

The socks they stuff will be donated to the Gathering Place, Street Reach(part of the Thrive network), Choices for Youthand the Salvation Army's New Hope Community Centre.

"They all run either some version of a soup kitchen, or a drop-in, or an outreach location. They see hundreds of people every week, and so we'll be giving the socks to them," she said.

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