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Laguna's Sock Club Students Participate in SB Point in Time Count
By Molly Morouse '23
Last Wednesday, January 25, students rose at dawn to participate in the annual nationwide Point-In-Time count, a snapshot census that tracks the number, demographics, and needs of people experiencing homelessness around the country. A group of ten Laguna students embarked at 5AM from Christ Presbyterian Church to the Santa Barbara Waterfront, their designated area for Santa Barbara.
Students returned from the morning transformed. Natalie Schweitzer '25 explains, “What I didn’t expect was my totally altered viewpoint on not only the importance of the census but also of the people we were talking to.” Both the students and the leadership felt connected to our community and each other more than ever.
Hearing stories from these vulnerable community members reminded them of the importance of connection. Most individuals were eager to have someone listen to them, a privilege that is often taken for granted. One student remarked that the experience helped her “cross a mental barrier” that she hadn’t realized she possessed.
“It was one of the most moving mornings of my teaching career— perhaps second only to the morning we did the PIT count in 2015, after which the Sock Club started," says SOCK Club Faculty Advisor Ashely Tidey. “In this experience, the teacher/student division is broken; we’re just humans out there together, figuring it out.”
“It was one of the most moving mornings of my teaching career— perhaps second only to the morning we did the PIT count in 2015, after which the Sock Club started," says SOCK Club Faculty Advisor Ashely Tidey. “In this experience, the teacher/student division is broken; we’re just humans out there together, figuring it out.”
In working to help the Santa Barbara county and community, they in turn, helped themselves.
“I feel blessed to have been able to hear my community’s stories and set many individuals up with resource workers," says Molly. "The benevolence I found in conversations with vulnerable community members will stick with me, reminding me daily of the multitude of stories too often silenced on the streets of Santa Barbara.”
Thank you to supervisors Ashley Tidey, James Savage, Charles Donelan, Jim Morouse, and Kayla Petersen. And a huge thank you to the following students for their willingness to participate in such an important (and early!) event: Lucia Camp '24, Dylan Comis '25, Evie Comis '26, Eleanor Crafton '25, Olivia De Ponce '25, Caroline Kenny '25, Molly Morouse, Natalie Schweitzer, Ethan Somer '25, and JJ Stone '26.
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Laguna Blanca is Santa Barbara’s premier private, co-educational, college preparatory day school for students in Early Kindergarten through Grade 12.