Making a Difference Two Shoes at a Time

Dee Gordon (pictured) of Gainesville, VA said it’s the small things we take for granted that can make all the difference in the world to others.

“We don’t know how good we have it until something is taken away from us,”said Gordon, whose family immigrated to the United States from Laos in 1980.

So Gordon brought a couple of plastic shopping bags full of shoes to Sudley Manor Square in Manassas, VA to donate to Soles4Souls.

“Sometimes the little things that we take for granted, other people don’t have,” Gordon said.

Allan Clark, a Soles4Souls volunteer, is driving with his wife, Silvana, across the United States in a recreational vehicle to collect shoes for those who need them.

Silvana Clark said she’s getting more than shoes out of the trip she and her husband decided to take after their daughter left for college.

“We get to meet wonderful people,” said Silvana Clark, of Seattle. “We get to see people coming in and donating shoes and we get to travel the country.”

The Clarks, who worked for Soles4Souls in Seattle, will be touring for a year to collect the shoes, box them up and ship them off for rehabilitation, Allan Clark said.

“They get refurbished in our warehouses down in Alabama or in Las Vegas and shipped around the world,” he said.

Shirley Davis, who lives in the Sudley area, said she was glad to find some use for the shoes she can’t wear anymore.

“I’m handicapped and I can’t wear heels anymore. I was going to throw them in the trash,” Davis said.

It was a little party in the parking lot which included free pizza from Papa Johns and an appearance from Ronald McDonald. People applauded when someone came in with shoes, like when Alex Bumpers brought in some dress shoes that looked new.

“I don’t waste. Those are just some shoes that didn’t fit quite right,” Bumpers said. “I think that this is obviously a great cause.”