"Help Us Collect Shoes" Drive

A pair of Stevenson High School students in Lincolnshire, IL are finding that their classmates and local residents have plenty of gym shoes to give away.

Sophomores McKinley Imus and Carlee Berland's were required to do a service project for their English class. They chose to collect athletic shoes, used but still usable, for Soles4Souls.

Their "Help Us Collect Shoes" drive begins this week, with the goal of collecting both 100 pairs of shoes and enough donated money to buy 100 more, all by May 1.

"At first, we were kind of scared, because we couldn't think of steps to get everybody in our community to help us," Berland said April 9. "But everything is kind of working out right now."

The pair have a shoe collection box in SHS' activities office and hoping to place another in Lincolnshire Village Hall.

A gym shoe drive came naturally, Berland said, as both are volleyball and basketball players. The idea evolved to include footwear of all kind.

"We both play sports, so we thought that doing a gym shoe drive would be really good," she said," but then we opened it up to any kind of shoe. It would be better for everybody if there were all kinds of shoes."

The Help Us Collect Shoes effort will also include a bake sale in SHS' Wood Commons sometime this week and a Facebook group of the same name, which has already attracted 254 members. Once the donation drive is complete, they plan to send the shoes to Soles4Souls in May.