Hop On Over To Silly Sock Saturdays Sock Hop On July 24
by James Coulter
You can rock it. You can roll it. You can stomp and even stroll it at the hop—the Silly Sock Saturdays Sock Hop, that is! Come take a blast in the past for an evening of cool music, hot food, and an overall groovy time filled with classic 1950s fun—and you don’t even need to drive more than 88 MPH!
On Sat., July 24 at 5 PM, Silly Sock Saturdays will be hosting their annual fundraiser at Venue 650 in Winter Haven. This year’s event will be a 50s-style sock hop with music performed by a DJ, a barbecue dinner catered by Sonny’s BBQ, root beer floats, a photo booth, and other fun games and activities.
Currently, tickets are on sale. Zachary Kirkland, Founder of Silly Socks Saturday, expects more than 200 people to attend. Several prizes and gift baskets, donated by local businesses and sponsors, will be raffled off through the night.
Silly Sock Saturdays often hosts a bowling fundraiser at Cypress Lanes as their main fundraising event. This year, especially in light of the recent pandemic, they wanted to do something different. As a play on their name, they decided to host a 1950s sock hop.
“We are Silly Socks Saturday. We are having a sock hop. So it all fits and plays well together,” Zack said. “We tried to think what would portray our non-profit the best, and we came up with doing something like a sock hop for people to come together and have a good time, to include those who might not enjoy a full night, so they could come, hang out, have a nice evening with people.”
Zack started his non-profit organization initially as a school project. He was assigned by his teacher at Bok Academy in Lake Wales with creating a solution to a problem in his local community. During that time, he had many friends in the hospital, and he wanted to do something to help children like them staying there. So he decided to collect donations of socks, toys, and other small gifts to deliver.
Since then, Zack and his dedicated volunteers have been making monthly deliveries to patients at Lakeland Regional Hospital. What started as a class project has since evolved into a non-profit organization that has received local and national acclaim. Zack has received many awards, including the Disney’s Be Inspired Award and a President’s Volunteer Service Award.
“I can remember, at first, that there was a lot of worry and fear that I was just some kid who didn’t have a name or reputation,” Zack said. “But being able to start my non-profit through my school project at Bok Academy and being able to have that as my foundation and getting my name out there through different reporters, was truly something that allowed me to grow and gain traction.”
Zack recently graduated high school and is set to start attending college this fall. Even then, he hopes to continue running Silly Sock Saturdays and finding other ways to help people. The past four years of helping those in need have filled him with much joy, and he especially loves hearing about how his deliveries has helped children cope during their stay.
“Overall, I am hoping to just keep growing and expanding and getting my name out there,” he said. “Because the more people hear about what I do, and are able to come to different events and support me, or donate and support me, [that support] is able to let the community impact what I am doing, and, at the same time, it allows me to grow my outreach and be able to impact more kids at the same time.”
Silly Sock Saturdays’ Sock Hop will be hosted on Sat., July 24 from 5 PM to 8 PM at Venue 650, located at 650 6th St SW, Winter Haven, FL 33880. Tickets are on sale for $10. For more information, visit their website at: http://sillysocksaturdays.com, or their Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/SillySockSaturdays
