Friday, October 26, 2007

Brother's on Blvd hosting shoe drive

Brother's on the Blvd. in Lafayette, LA. announced that it is hosting a shoe drive to benefit Soles4Souls.

During the shoe drive, Brother's on the Blvd. will be offering $25 off any one pair of regular price shoes valued at $100 and up when you bring in a pair of gently worn shoes toward the effort. The shoe drive will end on Oct. 27. Brother's on the Blvd. is at 101 Arnould Blvd. in Lafayette.

"We are thrilled that Brother's on the Blvd. is acting on our behalf to spread joy to people, both here in the United States and around the world," said Paul Wilson, president of Soles4Souls. "It is only because of proactive retail stores, such as Brother's on the Blvd., that we are able to accomplish our goal of getting shoes on the feet of people who need them most," he said.


For more information on how you can get involved with this shoe drive and take advantage of the discount toward a new pair of shoes, contact Catherine or Brother Abdalla at Brother's on the Blvd. You can also visit their Web site at www.BrothersOnTheBlvd.com.

WSAToday covers Soles4Souls donation in Southern California

Soles4Souls is rushing to the rescue yet again, this time in Southern California. The nonprofit organization that provides footwear to those in need is sending more than 50,000 pairs of new shoes to victims of the recent wildfires in the region. Thus far the flames have destroyed 1,500 homes and businesses across a combined total of more than 480,000 acres, causing the evacuation more than 500,000 residents.

Soles4Souls has teamed up with several other relief organizations and government agencies including Operation Compassion, which sent three trucks en route today. The shoes are scheduled to arrive in such areas as Temecula, Poway and San Diego County on Monday.

For the complete story: http://www.wsatoday.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99468&Itemid=12

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Family collects shoes for Soles4Souls


Who said one person or one family can't make a huge difference?


The Hung family of St. Louis, MO will make a difference in 562 lives. That's how many pairs of shoes Micah and Lucas Hung (shown above) collected in a family shoe drive that will benefit the less fortunate worldwide.


It took the boys weeks to collect all of the shoes, mostly coming through friends and word of mouth at school. Many of the shoes collected will benefit the bare footed children in developing countries with little or no possessions.


While most kids spend their summers selling lemonade or mowing lawns for a few dollars, the Hungs did their work for free.


"My boys were proud of the work they did and we are so happy others can use these shoes," said the boys' mother Danielle. "Hopefully it will be an annual event for our family!"

Soles4Souls Sending 50,000 Pairs of Shoes to Victims of California Wildfires


Soles4Souls is sending more than 50,000 pairs of new shoes to victims of the devastating Southern California fires. More than 500,000 people have been forced from their homes and over 1,500 homes and businesses have been destroyed.


"You can't watch the news reports on this tragedy without being affected by it," said Wayne Elsey, founder of Soles4Souls. "Some people might think that everyone in Southern California is rich and can replace anything they've lost with an easy insurance claim, but that's just not true. Not everyone lives in Beverly Hills -- there are hundreds of thousands of middle and working class people who have been evacuated, and many of them don't have a safety net of any kind. They can't quickly return to their homes because they were renters or lived in trailer parks and don't have the security that many homeowners do," he said.


Elsey said that the shoe charity is coordinating the effort and partnering with several other relief organizations and government agencies to ensure the delivery process remains smooth and people who need the shoes receive them.


"We are working with several other relief organizations, including Operation Compassion, which sent three trucks from Birmingham today," Elsey said. "They will be arriving in the affected areas on Monday, October 29. We are extremely grateful for their help in this effort and invite everyone to donate their shoes or a few dollars to help us ship more shoes out there."


Dave Lorency, President of Operation Compassion, an international relief agency based in Cleveland, Tennessee, said that Soles4Souls was filling an important need for victims of the fires.


"Getting a new pair of shoes will be a big relief to a lot of these folks," he said. "We will be arriving on Monday with our truckloads of shoes and dropping them off in areas like Temecula, and Poway, and rural San Diego County," Lorency said.


Lorency said that people could help most by donating shoes and cash to Soles4Souls so that his organization could continue to deliver free shoes to people in need around the world.


"We work in places all over the world, like Romania and Indonesia, and when something like this happens in our own country, it's important that we step up and help those people with the same amount of compassion," he said. "Soles4Souls is an invaluable resource for people all over the world, including right here in the U.S."

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Young volunteer collects shoes for charity

The Bellingham Herald

As the holiday season looms large, residents in Bellingham, Washington are taking a day out of their weekend to do some early giving.


Saturday is Make a Difference Day, a national day of service that allows people to get together with an organization to do some good. More than 1,100 local volunteers are expected to take part in more than 30 projects throughout the county.

Though many participants may see Make a Difference Day as a one-time thing, it could just spark some people to go a little further.

Local student and author Sondra Clark has teamed with nonprofit Soles4 Souls with the goal of collecting 5,000 shoes for the less fortunate. Clark, a 17-year-old senior at Bellingham High School, spoke with The Herald about giving big and little before her homecoming dance.


Question: Your book, “You Can Change your World: Creative Ways to Volunteer and Make a Difference” is about how kids can make a difference. What are some of the best ways they can do that?

Answer: Starting small. You hear about kids on the news who are helping kids in Africa — and that’s amazing and wonderful — but that can be daunting to kids. Just look around your school; look locally. Talk to a teacher and ask if there’s someone in your class who doesn’t have enough money for school supplies; maybe do a book drive.


Q: How did you get started volunteering and getting involved?

A: My parents have always encouraged me to volunteer, and I’ve grown up doing it. On Easter, we volunteer at a homeless shelter. We cleaned toilets after the dinner; it’s kind of the unglamorous part. When I was 12, I went to Africa for the first time. When I came back, I knew I needed to do something to help these kids … I raised $85,000 for AIDS orphans.


Q: What role do you hope volunteering will play in your life as you age?

A: I think it’s definitely going to be a huge part of my life, whatever I do. I don’t think it’s right to go through our lives and not reach out and help someone.


Q: Why do you think Make a Difference Day is important?

A: I think volunteering in itself is important, and Make a Difference Day is a great chance to get involved. A lot of times I know that people want to help, but they don’t know how to start.


Q: Your Make a Difference Day organization is Soles4 Souls. Why did you choose them?

A: They are a great organization from Nashville, where I’m from. I’d done some work with them passing out shoes in Nashville. This summer I was in Guatemala (passing out shoes for Soles4 Souls), and it was amazing to me how many of these kids didn’t have shoes. The smiles on their faces when they got those shoes were amazing.


Q: What is one thing you think anyone can do to make a difference?

A: I think just kind of look around you and see if someone needs a word of encouragement. Look at the perimeter of your friends. A lot of times it’s those people who it really makes a difference when you say, “How are you?” That’s sort of at the core of volunteering, helping the human nature of people.


Folks in Bellingham can donate slightly used shoes to Soles4Souls at the Childcare Worldwide headquarters located at 1971 Midway Lane, Suite N. Before donating, tie shoelaces together and wrap with a rubber band.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Soles4Souls on LiveEarth.org

Live Earth started the SOS campaign to empower individuals to change their consumer behaviors. Their goal is to motivate corporations and political leaders to enact decisive measures to combat the climate crisis. The message of SOS is that everyone, everywhere can and must Answer the Call to solve the climate crisis.

Recently, Soles4Souls was featured on the front page of the Live Earth web site:

Most Americans are aware of the large number of shoes lying dormant in their closets. It has been estimated that there are 1.5 billion pairs of shoes in American homes that are destined for our landfills instead of being put to use the way they were intended: on people’s feet.


Soles4Souls, a rapidly growing American charity, aims to recycle and reuse every unwanted pair of shoes in the country by collecting and distributing these shoes to poor people around the world. The US Government estimates that there are 300 million children around the world who don’t own a single pair. Nearly all the footwear that is thrown into our landfills could be used — and treasured as a luxury item — by people in third-world countries.

Soles4Souls believes that recycling footwear doesn’t have to mean shredding or melting shoes into park surfaces or basketball courts. Footwear can be used in the manner intended by needy people around the world, and save American landfills space for items that cannot be reused or recycled.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Women and Children receive shoes at the Mission


The Women's Mission in Nashville is home to 163 women and 22 children. On Thursday, Soles4Souls handed out a new pair of athletic shoes and a pair of clogs to every woman. Each child that was present received a new pair of shoes.


In addition, Soles4Souls left the mission with extra children shoes and women athletic shoes for future needs of their organization.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Celebrities help out at the Children's Place Shoe Drive


The kick-off of The Children's Place Shoe Drive in Santa Monica, CA was a huge success. It was the just the first day of the event and the large shoe donation bin was already full by the end of the day.


Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher is helping Soles4Souls kick off a month long drive urging people to donate shoes to the needy and underprivileged people in the U.S. and worldwide.


"You can come out, enjoy music and bring a pair of new shoes or gently used shoes," said Teri. "You can have a great time and you can feel really good about what you're doing for the kids who need it.”


Other celeb donors at the event included popular comedian Adam Sandler and Greg Grunberg from the NBC hit show Heroes.

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Shoe House Restoration a Success


The World’s Largest Shoe House refurbishment and shoe drive was a wonderful success. Members of the community donated a generous amount of shoes to Soles4Souls that kept the local volunteers busy for two days. In fact, the turn-out was so great that the Shoe House owner would like to hold a shoe drive on an ongoing basis.

The restoration of the Shoe House also went very well. Some 20 volunteers from Hampton Hotels’ “Save-A-Landmark” program dug in their heels in an estimated 84-hour restoration effort. The employee volunteers cleaned, primed and painted the five-story work boot. They also restored its historic stain glass windows and painted the Shoe House’s fence.