A Ring Lardner 7th grader has taken the initiative to launch a project that could potentially help hundreds of people in her community, and her reasoning couldn’t be more simple.

“I saw a problem, and I solved it,” said Emily Lapham, of Niles.

Lapham said she has learned the value of community service during her time as a Girl Scout over the last five years.

“I felt like I did not help enough for my community, and I hate thinking about how people are less fortunate than me, so I wanted to help them.”

Lapham said she saw a video made by Kid President, a popular YouTube columnist, who collected socks during an event he called “Socktober” last month.

“I just kind of thought about how people are doing No-Shave November in awareness for cancer, and I was like, ‘why don’t I do something like that?’” she said.

Because her project began in November, Lapham decided to call her project ‘Toevember.’ Since Nov. 4, she has been collecting socks in a box she decorated outside the main office at Ring Lardner Middle School, and has collected about 20 pair.

“My teacher kind of thought it would be a good idea to donate all of the socks to this homeless shelter called HOME,” Lapham said. “I know that they go all around Michigan donating all kind of things like clothing, food and diapers.”

Lapham said she hasn’t definitively decided where she is going to donate the socks, and is considering other local shelters.

“Anyone can donate at Ring Lardner. They can just drop it off at Ring Lardner, or they can drop them off at my mom’s work, Creative Cuts, right next to McDonalds,” she said. Creative Cuts is located at 1221 S. 11th St. in Niles. Donations will be collected through the end of the month.

Lapham has no intention of ending her service at the end of the month, though.

“What we do in Girl Scouts is for Christmas, we go to retirement homes and we sing carols to the elderly,” she said. “I was thinking that we can do a food drive next month, but we’re not really 100 percent. Just kind of thinking about it.”