Southeast Missouri State University student publication

Soles4Souls collecting shoes at Southeast for people in poverty

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Soles4Souls On Campus will start collecting shoes for people in poverty on March 26 through April 3. Their goal this year is to collect 10 thousand pairs.

Southeast started Soles4Souls On Campus in 2011. Every year, the club dedicates its time to collecting shoes for people who do not have them. So far, the club has collected 36 thousand pairs of shoes over the past six years.

Soles4Souls On Campus was inspired by the national organization, Soles4Souls, which started in 2006. The non-profit organization collects shoes for people living in poverty around the world. They have distributed 26 million pairs of shoes in 127 countries.

According to Soles4Souls On Campus president and junior Shelbey Walker, there are people in a lot of countries that live on less than $1.25 a day and cannot afford adequate footwear.

"I think we kind of take shoes for granted. We just wear them," Shelbey Walker said. "But, if you think about it, most people in developing countries don't have the shoes. They could get scrapes on their feet. Disease transfers."

Walker said the national organization, Soles4Souls, will either do free shoe donations or they will give the shoes to people in order to sell, also known as microenterprise.

"So, if they're able to sell through pairs of shoes, that takes them from poverty to middle class," Walker said. "Not only are we giving them out freely, but we're also helping people make their own kind of business. So, that way they're also self-sustainable."

Soles4Souls will accept various shoe donations such as high heels, flip-flops, tennis shoes, rain boots and cowboy boots. New or gently used shoes are acceptable for donation. However, shoes that are not wearable anymore can still be donated because the organization recycles the shoes to be used for something else.

Donated shoes are brought into St. Andrews Lutheran Church where the volunteers of Soles4Souls On Campus tie the pairs together and put them into boxes. The volunteers also keep track of how many boxes they have and how many pairs are in each box.

A semi-truck-trailer will pick up the shoes and take them to the Soles4Souls headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, where they will distribute them throughout the United States and worldwide.

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