Giving Skivvies

I have a 10 year old son. Those of you who have kids or relatives or students around this age (or who can remember being around kids this age) know that this is prime-time for bathroom-related talk. High atop that list?

Underwear.

Quite frankly, I never really gave much thought to underwear before my kid started cracking jokes about it and reading the Captain Underpants series of books. Our new hero.

Because, really, we don't think too much about underwear except for when we don't have any, right?

It's one of those things that we tend to take for granted. It's only when the laundry piles up for an extra day or two, or we hope we don't get into an accident because our skivvies are a bit too worn around the edges, that we realize we'd better get ourselves to Target and buy a new pair.

And so we do. Simple as that.

But for the homeless, that's not so easy.

At the Light of Life Rescue Mission on Pittsburgh's North Side, a nonprofit organization that has been offering a variety of services for poor and homeless men, women, and children for the past 60 years, they are in need of new underwear and socks for their clients. Many of the people they serve are in recovery from addition and have mental health issues. They are completely out of underwear and socks and are in desperate need for new underthings.

That's where you and I come in.

I recently became connected via Facebook with several Pittsburgh bloggers who, just this morning, together created #givingskivvies, a campaign to raise $1,000 for Light of Life to purchase new underwear and socks to distribute to their clients in need.

Here's how you can help (including if you're not in the Pittsburgh area):

• If you live in the Pittsburgh area, you can drop clean, new, unused socks and/or underwear off at Light of Life. Their address is 10 E. North Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

• Another option would be to donate online at www.lightoflife.org and put "SOX" in the designation field.

• Yet another option would be to purchase items online at a place like Target or Walmart and have them shipped to Light of Life, 10 E. North Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15212.  (I made it easy for you. The links go right to the underwear pages.)

• Spread the word to others about this need.  Share this info or blog post on Twitter, Facebook, or blog about it yourself.  If you share it on Twitter, please use the hashtag #givingskivvies

Please consider helping out with this worthy and wonderful cause.  Just one dollar would help buy a pair of socks or underwear for a person in need.

Captain Underpants would be proud.