WARSAW — Employees at the Kosciusko County Courthouse are working to give back to their community this Christmas, with both the Recorder’s office and the Auditor’s office collecting goods.

One month ago, Rachel Senff in the County Recorder’s office heard some stories of the struggles of being homeless. “As I sat in church, at WCC, listening to Eric Lane share with us information on the homeless shelter and how many men, women and children right here in [Kosciusko County] are in need, my heart broke,” said Senff.

Senff decided she wanted to try a sock drive. In partnership with Ken Locke, community ministries director of Salvation Army, Senff decided she wanted to try and collect 100 pairs of socks to be donated to the homeless. Not alone in her desires to help the community, Senff’s coworkers in the Recorder’s office decided the whole office would participate in the sock drive.

“I thought if we could help put 100 socks on people’s feet, that would be great,” commented Senff, but Senff had no idea that amount of support she was about to receive.

Spreading the word about the drive through flyers and word of mouth, soon multiple Kosciusko departments were gathering and dropping off socks. Several packages even came from Tempe, Ariz., after Senff told her aunt about the drive.

“I was blown away,” said Senff. “This would not have happened without donations from all over, including the courthouse, justice building, highway department, commissioners, abstractors, plus dear friends and family.”

One month later, Senff has collected 601 pairs of brand new socks to be given to those in need.

The socks will be delivered to Locke today, Dec. 15. “I felt Ken would know the needs of the community best,” commented Senff.

Down the hall in the courthouse, the Auditor’s office was having a drive of their own.

After her son took a book from Kate’s Kart, an organization that offers books to hospitalized children and their families, Sarah Stinfer decided she wanted to try and collect books give back to the organization. Typically choosing a charity to donate to for the holidays, the whole office decided to get in on the book drive. To date, over 100 books have been collected as well as monetary donations.

Stinfer is reluctant to take credit for the drive, praising all those who have donated, but those in her office were quick to state that it was Stinfer’s idea, putting in all the work of getting the book drive started.