Needs & Deeds: Oklahoma City 12-year-old wins national competition for community service

The efforts of a 12-year-old Moore youth have warmed the feet of hundreds of foster children and homeless adults.

Now she's being recognized for it.

Rayann Bracken has been collecting cans for a year and using the proceeds to buy socks for children served by Citizens Caring for Children, or CCC, which provides clothing and other necessities for foster children in Oklahoma. Some of the proceeds also go to buy socks to donate to homeless shelters.

Last month, she was one of 20 youths nationwide who were given the Community Spark Award from TruStage insurance. As part of the recognition, TruStage donated $1,000 to CCC.

“Rayann's mom is a foster parent. She would come here with her mom to help shop for foster kids and she saw that they didn't always have socks,” said Lynne Roller, executive director of CCC. “We depend on donations and we write for grants, but sometimes there will be a period where we're low on one thing or another. She just felt, I think, that we were often low on socks, especially for the teenage kids. She really has a heart to help kids in foster care.”

With the money being donated to CCC from her award, Bracken has asked that they use it to buy socks and to buy pajamas for teens.

“I first wanted to start my project when we got our first two foster kids. They came to us with a big bag full of clothes. They had a lot of clothes but they didn't fit them and they didn't have any socks at all,” Bracken said. “I decided to collect cans because my community partner, Robyn Promotions, has a break room and a vending machine that has pop cans. So, I thought I could put a recycling bin in their breakroom for them to put their empty cans in … and turn them in for money to buy the socks.”

Her grandfather in Tonkawa also collects cans for her, as well as other friends and family. To date, she has donated 800 pairs of socks.

Through her Cold Cans 4 Warm Socks project, she hopes to earn a Silver Award badge through her Girl Scout troupe and eventually turn it into a nonprofit. Bracken's older brother, who will graduate from college next year with a degree in management, will step in as her CEO while she builds a teen board.

“That way she can get more of her peers involved with her,” said Bracken's mother, Autumn Estes.

"I've always wanted to be a dentist … or a tattoo artist. I love going to the dentist,” she said.

But for now, she'll continue to collect cans and buy socks.

“I love socks. I have too many socks,” she said. “That makes me want to help (foster children) get socks and have more socks.”