Center conducting shoe drive

Esther Miller, owner and solo practitioner of the Transition Counseling Center is pleased to help provide a basic gift that most take for granted.

The center located on the second floor at 149 Main Street in Cooperstown, will be holding a shoe drive until June 30. People can drop off lightly worn or new shoes for distribution worldwide in the collection boxes on site. Miller asks that each pair of shoes be wrapped with a rubber band.

This is the first year the center has teamed up with the US-based non-profit group Soles4Souls, which provides footwear to those who have none. Miller said she heard and read about the organization then chose it for the for the center’s first step in helping people globally.

Soles4Soules mission is to impact as many lives as possible with the gift of shoes and Miller, who is a clinical social worker, said, "For me, I usually work to help individual people work to effect change, one person at a time. And doing a charity drive for a group like Soles4Souls enables me to work to effect change on a larger scale.

When choosing a charity to support, Miller has found that giving tangible items where donors will know the end use is more effective than writing a check.

Miller is not sure how many shoes will be donated, but she would like people to look into their closets and ask themselves which shoes haven’t been worn in a long time because maybe someone else could be wearing them now.

Soles4Souls was started by long-term footwear executive Wayne Elsey after successful footwear drives for victims of the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. According to Miller, Soles4Souls donated 250,000 pair of shoes to the victims of the Tsunami and then donated 750,000 pair of shoes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"I like those numbers and I like their intention." Miller said. "I am happy to help them."

Staff Writer Michelle Miller