Primrose School Franchisees Gain National Headlines With 10,000 'Socks For Sharing'

The Primrose School Franchising Company recently attracted national media coverage from a 'sock surplus crisis' - when 10 pallet loads of new socks were delivered by an 18-wheeler to North Carolina Primrose School.

According to Kathy and Stew Miller, Franchise owners of the Primrose School of Cary and the Primrose School of West Cary in Apex, NC, it was all prompted by a notice that was sent home to parents asking for sock donations as part of the Primrose School' monthly community helping hands project. The project, called 'Socks for Sharing' is part of Primrose Schools' unique character development curriculum. Typically, each school collects about 500 socks, which they in turn donate to a local organization in need. But when a parent with connections to a sock mill came through with a single donation of 10,000 pairs, the Millers found themselves caught in an unusual dilemma: how to find deserving homes for all 10,000 pairs of new socks.

Capitalizing on a great opportunity to help the community and gain positive publicity for their school, the Millers decided to launch a national search to place their grand total of 10,530 new pairs of socks in the hands (or feet) of a deserving organization. Their first step was to send a press release out to local media encouraging organizations in need of new socks to contact Primrose and put in a request.

The results of the release, which carried the headline, "Wanted 10,000 Pairs of Cold Feet," were phenomenal. After the story made the front-page of the Raleigh News & Observer, went out over the Associated Press wire and gained local TV coverage, the school received more than 150 calls for the socks.

In the end, the socks found excellent homes with flood victims in Craven County, an American Indian reservation in Montana, children's homes in Oxford and orphanages in Ukraine. In addition, the News & Observer took the opportunity to toot their own horn with a follow-up piece on the front page of its "Metro" section: "After a good airing, surplus-sock crisis is averted."

"The important thing is that the children learned a great lesson in community service, and thousands of people in need will have brand new pairs of socks," said Kathy Miller. "We also hope that other franchisees will take note of how they can use publicity to further their cause and promote Primrose. Now the whole nation has learned about the wonderful ways in which we instill character development in our children."

Primrose Schools, which offers quality Child Care and educational preschool programs for children 6 weeks to 5 years, with an after-school "Explorer's Club" program for children up to 12 years, currently operates 73 schools in seven states with an additional 24 schools under development.