Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe ANNAPOLIS, Md., March 21 (UPI) -- Members of a yacht club in Annapolis, Md., said the site hosted an event that welcomed spring by burning the socks of excited participants. The Baltimore Sun said Sunday that Saturday's waterside event at the Eastport Yacht Club featured hundreds of people taking part in a 30-year tradition aimed at celebrating the first day of spring. Advertisement "We got about 375 people, and they are tossing in their socks. One fellow even tossed in his jeans," yacht club member Susan Nahmias told the Sun. "It is a fun way to say spring is here," yacht club founder Fred Hecklinger offered. Sailors at the Downtown Sailing Center in Baltimore also embraced the spring tradition in their own way. Instead of burning scores of socks, participants in the center event donated more than 700 pairs of new socks to help individuals at a local mission. "We always need socks," Helping Up Mission director Barry Burnett said of the donation to his site, which helps the poor and homeless.