Lighting Up the Season: Amarr's Heart Foundation Surpasses Expectations with Annual Sock Drive

Amarr’s Heart Foundation recently concluded its annual blanket, socks, and glove drive, a community-wide effort to honor the late Amarr Murphy-Paine nearing what would have been his 19th birthday last month. The drive, a collaborative effort with Garfield High School, the Garfield Teen Life Center, and the Garfield Community Center, successfully collected supplies for the homeless and disenfranchised in the Seattle area.

Arron Murphy-Paine, Amarr's father and CEO of Amarr's Heart Foundation, explained that the initiative was a way to channel grief into positive action. The family's tradition of giving back started even before Amarr’s son’s passing, with a simple act of feeding the homeless with leftovers. 

Now, the acts of kindness hold greater weight, demonstrating the community’s dedication to Amarr. 

"It’s about [Amarr’s] name and his legacy, taking it to the places that we don’t even know he would have been able to take it if he was alive," Arron Murphy-Paine said. This philosophy is encapsulated in the foundation’s mission to "bring happiness to the world one heartbeat at a time."

This year, the community’s response was overwhelming, far exceeding the foundation’s modest goal in one month. Garfield High School alone contributed 2,000 pairs of socks and over 100 blankets. In addition to the collection at Garfield, the foundation received a separate truckload of 500 more pairs of socks, 100 hygiene kits, and 100 sack lunches through a partnership with the Inner-City Action Network (ICAN). 

While taking in the immense love steeped in the drive’s rewards, Arron Murphy-Paine reflected on his son's final moments. 

"In that moment of kindness that cost Amarr his life... we have the narrative now. We control the narrative of what Amarr meant…in this world,” he said, hoping that people can see the strength he reflects.

On December 30th, 2025, the community celebrated Amarr’s legacy at Garfield High School on what would have been his 19th birthday. Later that day, the community distributed the collected supplies in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District. 

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