Patti Amato is hoping people sock it to her -- 1,000 times.

Amato, of Churchill, is collecting 1,000 pairs of new white athletic socks for needy children here and abroad. That is 167 six-pack bags worth.

Her inspiration is bare feet.

Amato saw a television news story about Ron Hunter, who coached his Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis basketball team in his bare feet during a January game to raise awareness and footwear for Samaritan's Feet, a humanitarian non-profit organization.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based charity is the pay-it-forward initiative of Manny Ohonme, a Nigerian native who at age 9 was given his first pair of shoes by an American missionary.

Shoes enabled him to play basketball, which earned him a scholarship to the University of North Dakota, says Sarah McCune, development coordinator.

Now a successful businessman, Ohonme founded Samaritan's Feet in 2003 with the goal of equipping 10 million impoverished children with 10 million athletic shoes in 10 years, McCune says.

The story touched Amato. But it left her wondering.

"You can't have shoes without socks," she says.

Amato contacted Samari-tan's Feet and offered to spread the word about donating shoes while conducting her own sock drive to collect 1,000 pairs to fit toddler through adult sizes.

She hopes to reach her goal by the end of June.

So far, her largest single donation is 90 pairs. Donations have come steadily from as far away as Massachusetts and Iraq, thanks to an e-mail plea to relatives and friends.

Although Samaritan's Feet is a Christian ministry, Amato, who is Jewish, says the cause goes beyond religious differences for the greater good. She's now appealing to local churches, synagogues or community groups for help.

"Every six-pack brings me six pairs closer," Amato says.

For those who don't want to buy the socks themselves, she will accept monetary donations and do the shopping or use it toward shipping sock-filled boxes to Samaritan's Feet in North Carolina.

Amato's motivation for the sock drive is simply "to do good in the world. To give someone a pair of socks -- that's nothing."

McCune says about 300 million children worldwide don't have shoes. Or socks.

Even though there are times Amato has struggled financially as a single mother, her daughter Alex, 15, has always known the comfort of footwear and socks.

"I can't imagine what it would be like not to have socks and shoes," Amato says. "It's incomprehensible."