Last year alone, Americans discarded more than 300 million pairs of shoes – shoes that could help protect someone’s feet from scrapes, cuts and contaminants. Instead of throwing their old shoes away, Darlington’s Lower and Middle School students have spent the last two weeks collecting pairs to donate to Soles4Souls, an organization that distributes new and used shoes to people in need all over the world at no charge to them.
“Operating for the last five years, they have already distributed over 5 million shoes – 45 percent of these going to needy people here in the United States,” said Marta Turner, who is heading up the Soulds4Souls effort in Floyd County. “We are accepting new, used, worn out and even mismatched pairs through the end of November. Shoes that cannot be distributed will be recycled. Our goal is to collect 50,000 pairs of shoes statewide.”
According to Kevin Ivester (’87), Middle School math and computer teacher, Middle School students filled up two collection bins on the very first day. The Middle School collected a total of 500 pairs in just a week and a half.
“Our students are all extremely fortunate to have the things they have, and the best lesson we can teach them is to help others that don’t have as much,” Ivester said. “It’s amazing to me that whenever we ask them to take part in a community service project and give back, they always respond with incredible kindness. Every day that I came in to look at the Soles4Souls collection box, it was overflowing with shoes. I would bag them up and the box would be filled again the next day. This just illustrates the generosity of our students and their families.”
First-grader Cooper Cates took the service project a step further during his recent birthday party. Instead of gifts, he asked that his guests bring donations for Soles4Souls; the party raised 80 pairs of shoes.
Click here to read more about Soulds4Souls.
