Running your socks off for the Bakken
ABERDEEN, SOUTH DAKOTA -- Many people head to North Dakota for a job in the oil fields. They get there and find no place to live, high costs of living and struggles to make ends meet. A lot of struggling people in the North Dakota oil region will be wearing better socks because a United Methodist Church in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Photo: Running with joy wearing crazy socks in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Photo submitted by Aberdeen North HIghland UMC.
Run Your Socks Off, a 5k Run/Walk was held Saturday September 13, 2014. The entry fee for the fun run was a pair of work socks, each of which will be shipped to folks in the Bakken Oil Rush Ministry in Watford City, North Dakota. Walkers and runners were invited to wear crazy socks with prizes given for the craziest.
Why send socks to the Bakken Oil Rush Ministry?
North Dakota has attracted thousands from across the United States and abroad, as oil companies set up hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, operations that extract tens of billions of dollars' worth of oil and gas from the Bakken shale.
Stories of $300 signing bonuses for fast-food workers and gas station attendants who make $50,000 per year are attracting people to the state at a time when the official unemployment rate in the rest of the country is still hovering at 6 percent. North Dakota's unemployment rate is just over 2 percent. $50,000 sounds great however, not everyone finds a job, and few families can make it on that income or find a place to live.
There is a housing affordability crisis. North Dakota saw a 200 percent jump in homelessness in 2013, the biggest increase of any state. There are now 2,069 homeless people in the state of 699,628, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. That translates into 28.6 homeless people per 10,000. The national average is 19.
The population of Williston, North Dakota has more than doubled, to an estimated 33,547 in 2013, from 14,716 in 2010, according to estimates by North Dakota State University. The number of homeless in the area is 986, according to estimates.
Rents have skyrocketed. One-bedroom apartments, which cost $500 per month a few years ago, are over $2,000 per month. The waiting lists for apartment houses and RV spaces are long. People are renting out rooms in their homes for as much as $1,000. Starter houses cost $300,000 or more to buy.
There are no homeless shelters in Williston, and the surrounding communities. The municipalities do not have the resources to cope with the new homeless population.
Sending socks are one small way to help
The Dakotas Conference of The United Methodist Church has established the Bakken Oil Rush Ministry to assist those who are not making it in the Bakken. In Watford City, North Dakota the Ministry operates a Mobile Free Thrift Center. A mobile trailer equiped with shoes, socks, blankets, coats, and small household items moves around to provide those in need with the basic items.
Over 100 pair of new substantial work socks were collected for the Bakken Oil Rush Ministries by Aberdeen North Highland United Methodist Church during Run Your Socks Off.
The entry fee for the fun run was a pair of work socks, each of which will be shipped to folks in the Bakken oil basin. “We collected close to 100 pair,” said the Rev. Lou Whitmer, pastor of North Highland.
About 50 people covered the 5K course. The event was a project of the Bakken Oil Rush Ministry, which is organized by United Methodist churches in the Dakotas.
Whitmer knew that several members of the church like to run, so the run seemed like “a fun way to do a mission program,” she said.
The 5K was successful enough that North Highland will have another fundraiser next September.
“It was really fun to have the community support along with the people of the church,” Whitmer said. “And it was a beautiful day and lots of energy.”
This story was picked up by AP Press which has carried information from California to Connecticut on not only the event, but also a lot of information on the Dakotas UMC outreach to the Bakken.
Click on the links below to see the various news venues who have published the story.
