Soles4Souls Inc., the shoe charity that gives away free shoes to people in desperate need, is running out of shoes. The non-profit organization has responded aggressively to the many natural disasters around the world and has nearly depleted its stock of both new and gently worn shoes.
“Now, more than ever before, we need our friends and partners to stand with us and send us all the shoes they can spare,” said Wayne Elsey, Founder and CEO of the charity. “We’ve sent everything we had to suffering people. Thankfully, we have the most amazing support network of individual heroes, and today, we need them to engage their family and friends to clean out their closets and help us respond to the needs of people around the world and here in the United States,” he said.
Elsey said that supporters could create their own neighborhood shoe drives, network with their friends (school, church, gym, or Facebook) to create a community event, or simply clean out their own closets and send the shoes to the closest collection point (locations listed at GiveShoes.org.
In addition to participation locations for individual donations, 12 Suddath locations have joined forces with our four permanent warehouses to act as collection points for large donations. Suddath has teamed with Soles4Souls during the past year by offering discount transportation and collection facilities. They requested to be a part of this effort to help reuse the estimated 1.5 billion pairs of shoes sitting idle in closets.
The charity acts as a comprehensive recycling program for footwear, as it gives new purpose to shoes lying dormant in closets, attics and garages. Soles4Souls does not throw out any footwear it receives. If any donated shoes are unusable, the charity recycles the footwear into materials used for playgrounds, insulation and other uses.
According to Soles4Souls, this has happened once before when the charity responded to victims of three natural disasters within a five-week period. Today, because of the charity’s aggressive donation policy toward helping victims in the Gulf Coast, survivors of the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods, and answering countless requests from Americans in need (combined with a sluggish economic climate), it is running low on much-needed footwear donations.
“If you ever wanted to be an active part of the Soles4Souls team, now is the chance to jump in with both feet and make a significant impact in your community and around the world,” Elsey said. “We need you to respond to our call to action and contact us,” he said.
Visit GiveShoes.org to get contact information and learn more about the way Soles4Souls benefits people in need around the world and in your community.
More About Soles4Souls®
Soles4Souls collects shoes from warehouses of footwear companies and the closets of people like you. We distribute these shoes free of charge to people in need around the world. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has given away more than 10 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes in 126 countries (currently distributing one pair every seven seconds). Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) recognized by the IRS and donating parties are eligible for tax advantages.
