The next time you see Camila Hernandez walking down the halls of MTS, know that you’re in the presence of a famous artist. Camila, a 10th grader, recently won the Smartwool sock design contest and we here at MTS have been glowing with pride for her ever since.  

Thanks to her connections with Big City Mountaineers (BCM), MTS Art teacher Brett Albin heard about the sock contest opportunity. She taught her students about the design process in Art class and then submitted their entries to the competition. Ms. Albin has been working with BCM since 2011 and has spent the last 10 summers leading wilderness backpacking and canoeing trips in the summer.  “Leading wilderness trips is what inspired me to become a teacher. I see a lot of connection with experiential learning in the wilderness and creativity in art classes.”

Every year, Smartwool partners with a different non-profit organization to create a specialty sock, and the proceeds from the sock sales go to the non-profit. This year, BCM was the chosen non-profit, and they reached out to Ms. Albin to tell her about the opportunity. They will use the proceeds to fund outdoor wilderness trips for youth. The prompt this year was, “Capture the feeling you get when you spend time outside.” Camila felt a deep connection to this prompt. She told me, “I was inspired by a combination of Mexican art and my love of space and science.” 

Over 90 students from two states submitted their sock designs. The BCM staff chose their top five favorites, and then it was up to the public to decide! When the winner was announced, Camila was elated. “I was shocked when Ms. Albin told me that I had won! I felt like I had accomplished a huge goal.” 

As the winner, Camila’s design has been mailed to the Smartwool headquarters in Colorado. Graphic designers there will translate her design into photoshop and will program their sock printers to create the socks. Her socks will be for sale in October for “socktober” and everyone that participated will get a free pair of Smartwool socks.

We are so proud of Camila, and you can bet everyone at MTS will be rocking her socks as soon as they hit the shelves! Keep reading the MTS Times for more exciting news, and if you’re interested in signing up for this year’s trip to the Boundary Waters, you can talk to Ms. Albin, Ms. BB, or Mr. Gharrity. 

Click here to watch a video of a previous Boundary Waters canoe trip.

You can see a video of the sock printing process here.