Blessed Bloomers XXI
Dedicated to all those whose cold feet long for warm socks
through December 2022
Project Description
It was late April of 2022. Mychal’s Message founder Shannon Lapp was scheduled for a liver biopsy at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, a nearly 3 1/2 hour drive from home. It was an outpatient procedure, and she was supposed to be released immediately after the biopsy. However, quite unexpectedly, she was admitted to the hospital with acute rejection of the liver transplant she had as an infant. We were not prepared to stay overnight, so far from home, and had nothing with us—no clothes, no meds, not even a toothbrush.
That evening, as I drifted off to sleep, so worried about Shannon, I realized how cold I was. Most especially, my feet were cold. How I longed for a pair of warm socks! What a difference that would have made to me that night. Those thoughts brought me back to the very beginning—21 years ago—of Mychal’s Message and our first collection of 1,500 pair of socks for the homeless and poor. And then to the young man at St. Francis Inn soup kitchen in Philadelphia, during one of our earliest sock distributions, who asked if he could perhaps have two pair instead of one pair of socks that day.
In St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians (4:17), he writes that “our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.” As I recall my own “momentary and light affliction” that night in late April, I remember how my thoughts almost naturally drifted to the homeless and poor men, women and children who have become such an integral part of Mychal’s Message, and thus such an integral part of our family’s lives since 2001. I knew that night that this year’s Blessed Bloomers collection would carry an “eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” for me … simply because of the gift of two cold feet that longed for a pair of warm socks.
How You Can Help
Your tax-deductible donation of $20 will allow us to provide new underwear, T-shirts and socks to a man, woman or child in need.
If you’d prefer, you may also mail new underwear and socks directly to Mychal’s Message. Greatest need is for men’s boxers. PLEASE NOTE: If you are sending donated items via UPS, FEDEX or from Amazon, please contact us for a street address.
Donations by check should be mailed to:
Mychal's Message
P.O. Box 6404
Lancaster, PA 17607
Online donations are accepted through Network for Good.
Please click the button below and specify "Socks for the Homeless" in the "Designation" line on the Network for Good website.
