Students in Michelle Russo’s English class at Oakdale-Bohemia Middle School recently promoted awareness and showed support for individuals suffering from the rare skin condition epidermolysis bullosa by wearing socks on their hands as part of the wildly popular “Rock the Socks” campaign.

The cause is near and dear to Ms. Russo, whose close friends, Liz Cadmus and Nick Cadmus, have a daughter, Makenzie, who was born with the disease that causes painful blisters and skin erosions due to being born without skin on most of her limbs.

In their efforts to raise awareness for this terrible disease, the Cadmus family started the Rock the Socks Foundation as a way of sharing Makenzie’s story and raising money to help combat the effects of the disease. Since its inception, it has gathered the attention of not only thousands of individuals, but celebrities and professional athletes as well.