The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) held their first annual service project, Operation Sock Drop, at the 2013 Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, March 26 through 28 with great success. The project involved sock donations from conference attendees and an entertaining competition among the 17 ASPRS Regions; all focused on giving back to the local Baltimore community, while providing a seemingly simple necessity, socks.
Conference attendees were asked through marketing announcements to bring a new pair of men’s, women’s or children’s socks to the conference for donation. Donation boxes were placed near the registration desk and each box was labeled with one of 17 ASPRS Regions. Attendees “Dropped” socks into their favorite Regions’ donation box and the Region with the most donations was announced at the closing of the conference.
The ASPRS St. Louis Region was the winning region with a total donation of 66 pairs of socks. The competition was tight with the Northern California region receiving second place with 53 pairs donated and the Eastern: Great Lakes region receiving third place with 30 pairs donated. The total donations can be found at www.asprs.org/Conferences/Baltimore-2013/Social-Events/Giving-Back.
“Serving our conference host city was a fulfilling way our members could show their appreciation for all the effort Baltimore put forth while our conference was in town. As for the Region competition component, it was just plain fun and yet created a fantastic bond among the participants.” said John Iiames, Conference Co-Chair for the ASPRS 2013 Annual Conference.
The ASPRS Student Advisory Council (SAC) helped by selling socks in the exhibit hall for anyone who wanted to participate. The net proceeds from the purchases were given to the SAC to further support their continuing efforts and participation within ASPRS.
With a total donation of over 300 pairs of socks from conference attendees, ASPRS will match the conference donation for a total donation of 600 pairs of socks. The socks will be given to St. Vincent de Paul of Baltimore, a leading provider of community services to people suffering from the effects of hunger, homelessness, and poverty in Baltimore, Maryland.
Founded in 1934, ASPRS is an international professional organization of 6,000 geospatial data professionals. ASPRS is devoted to advancing knowledge and improving understanding of the mapping sciences to promote responsible application of photogrammetry, remote sensing, geographic information systems and supporting technologies.
