Over the Summer, Oakdale High School Junior Siba Kim attended a seminar at Towson University, about the non-profit organization “Because I Said I Would”. After the seminar she felt inspired, and decided to bring what she learned back to Oakdale.

Months later when club sign ups rolled around, she decided to create a club based on the same principles as Alex Sheen’s organization, because of the significant impact it had on her. 

The club is run at OHS by Kim, and fellow student, Madi Tribbit, who made it their goal to make the community of OHS a better place one promise at a time.

The group meets once a month to create a promise, and then at the next meeting they talk about how they either kept their promise, or fell short and discuss how to make a more reachable goal for the next meeting. As of now, the club has over 120 members, making it one of the largest clubs in Oakdale.

 “The purpose of this club is to better our Oakdale community by making promises and keeping them,” states Kim.

The club is a great chance for students to not only better themselves through keeping their promises, but to also have an environment where they can discuss their lives, eat snacks, and make new friends.

There are flyers around the school for Socktober, a club sponsored drive, where students will donate new socks, and after it ends, some members of the club will take the socks to the Gale House Shelter in Frederick. The idea of Socktober came about when Madi Tribbit was in her National and Global Issues class, where they were discussing poverty.

“Kay, our secretary off-handedly mentioned how socks are the number 1 most requested clothing item. The pandemic of poverty can be solved one step at a time. Starting locally in our community helps to enrich the lives of our fellow Fredrick neighbors. Please share a pair to show you care!” explained Tribbit. 

If you have any new socks you don’t need, please consider donating them at the Socktober boxes in Mr. Beard’s room, the front office or cafeteria, between September 22 and October 27, regardless of if you are in the club or not.