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The ‘sock guy’ considers generosity a spiritual practice

At the Congregational Church at Mercer Island, Terry Pepple has become known as the “sock guy” or “sock king” for his organizing the annual sock drive for Operation Nightwatch for more than 20 years.

Terry Pepple, Jennifer Castle and Diane Calvert show about one-tenth of the socks collected. Photo courtesy of the Congregational Church of Mercer Island

He was serving on the Social Outreach Committee which had a relationship going with Operation Nightwatch which offers shelters, counseling and meals.

“When we started, we would give them a few hundred pairs,” said Terry.

Then by chance he learned of sock mills in Fort Payne, Ala.

Terry, who started his career as a flight attendant with Pan American from 1980 to 1988, and then worked more than 30 years leading sports tours until he retired during Covid, was on a business trip in 2016.

Curious about the lost baggage center he had heard about in Scottsboro, Ala., he decided to drive there from Atlanta when he had a six-hour layover between flights.

He drove through Fort Payne and saw a sign saying, “Sock Capital of the World.” He saw that many of the 150 small sock factories in town were boarded up.

So he looked it up and found that the mills had been put out of business by competition with factories in China. He contacted one of the manufacturers and, since then, has used monetary donations given in the sock drive to buy socks there.

In 2025, the Congregational Church of Mercer Island’s goal was to top the record of providing 5,167 pairs of socks in 2024.

“This year, people brought and we bought 8,857 pairs of socks to provide for Operation Nightwatch,” Terry said. “Last year, I had to borrow a neighbor’s truck to take 11 cartons to Operation Nightwatch. This year we had two orders of socks shipped there directly.”

Someone in an apartment complex in Issaquah had heard of the drive. They had been collecting socks and looking for a place to give them.

In addition to promoting the sock drive to the community this year with messages on the church’s reader board and a big sock banner beside the sign, he said a Mercer Island Reporter story helped spread the word so more people in the community dropped donations in a box outside.

“Many left notes saying, ‘Thank you for doing this!’” Terry said

Terry grew up on Mercer Island and found the Congregational Church in 1990 when he and his wife, Lisa, were married there. They still attend there, even though they moved to Normandy Park in 2024 and winter in Phoenix.

“We felt welcome and kept going. When we are not in town, we can go on Zoom, along with some others from South Africa and Great Britain,” he said.

In addition to being the sock guy, he’s also the toy guy. Previously he did the sock drive in November and the toy drive in December. This year the drives were a week apart.

The church does a toy drive for the Atlantic Street Center Christmas toy store. For the holiday assistance program, the center collects toys.

The Mercer Island church collects funds, and Terry is among those who go shopping for toys. The center sets up the toys in rooms and families come to shop.

He has helped with that for 20 years.

Donations to both projects are also inspired by the emphasis of the pastor, Jennifer Castle, on generosity as a spiritual practice.

“I believe in that and I believe in radical kindness,” Terry said. “We need that today. It will not solve all the problems of the world to give someone a pair of socks, but it’s direct, local and immediate impact we can see.

“It may seem like a small thing, but it gives us a visceral connection. I think of it as a hug,” he described, telling of his conversations with Frank DiGirolamo about the work with people at Operation Nightwatch.

“We are doing our small part. It’s fun for me and keeps me connected with the congregation,” Terry said. “Kindness in incremental steps will make the world better. We need more of it.”

For information, email terrypepple@msn.com.

 

Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ News © January 2026

 

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