Two students skated ten plus miles in San Francisco, while carrying backpacks full of canned foods and socks to handout to the homeless on Saturday, March 15.

Sophomores Karl Tietze and Michael Gonzales skated into the Embarcadero and the Haight to distribute about 10 pairs of socks and eight cans of food to homeless locals. In recent weeks, both boys joined “Skate for Change,” a nonprofit organization where skaters distribute socks to the homeless in their community.

The founder of the organization, Mike Smith, motivated the students to participate in the organization with his speech about kindness during Redwood’s Everybody Loves Everybody spirit week.

“A lot of people stereotype skaters as bad people, Skate For Change shows us giving back to our community and stops that,” said Tietze.

“The biggest obstacle we faced was approaching the people,” said Tietze, “We were by a McDonald’s and a group of the homeless were there. At first we were intimidated but eventually we approached them, every time it got easier. It was really neat to see the impact we had.”

The duo not only handed out items to the homeless, but also listened to their stories.

“It was pretty eye opening to see people so down and out so thankful for something as basic as socks,” said Gonzales. “One of the most interesting parts of handing out the items was listening to the people talk, one lady told us about her past with heroin and how it destroyed her life. She told us not to get involved!”

Gonzales and Tietze both plan to return to help out homeless individuals in the city.