10,000 Shoes on your Doorstep

     Most people have closets cluttered with a far-too-many shoes. Now imagine having thousands of used shoes arrive at your house daily. That's what happens at one of the four Soles4Souls collection centers. Allan and I visited the Las Vegas warehouse to drop off some donated shoes people had given us It's amazing how often people see the Soles4Souls RV and motion us to pull over so they can give us used shoes from the trunk of their car! They always say, "I've had these shoes in my car for several weeks and didn't know what to do with them."

While dropping off the shoes, we met the friendly warehouse staff and volunteers who manage the thousands of shoes arriving on a daily basis. These guys are very efficient, so keep those shoes coming!
                                                                                         -Silvana

The Soles4Souls RV is making its way across the country as a part of The Great American Shoe Drive. Allen & Silvana Clark have been traveling the country distributing shoes & promoting our cause. Next week, the RV makes its way to Los Angeles to collect & distribute shoes.

Soles4Souls RV Tour Stopping in Connecticut to Collet Shoes

It is an idea that is beautiful in its simplicity: collect shoes from people who have too many, and give them to those without any.

The Nashville-based Soles4Souls will collect new and gently-used footwear at several area sites this week, and the charity's RV Tour will stop at the Stride-Rite store in the Goodwives Shopping Center in Darien on Thursday from 2 to 5 p.m.

All of the area Stride-Rite stores, including those at the Westfield Trumbull mall and the Danbury Fair mall, and in Westport, will be drop-off centers for donated stores, said Gail Stevens, the company's regional licensee.

Stevens and her husband have already donated more than 5,000 pairs of shoes, most from their Milford warehouse. "Before we connected with Soles4Soles we contacted the U.S. Army, and they brought the shoes over to Iraq, where our soldiers give them to children and create goodwill,'' Stevens said.

The shoes her company has donated so far have been new--inventory that has not sold or is out of season--but Stevens said the Stride-Rite stores will accept donations of used shoes.

"We will have special discounts for customers who donate a pair and then buy a pair of shoes on Thursday,'' she said. "But since school just started and a lot of people recently bought shoes, we'll offer a coupon that [donors] can use the next time they do need shoes.''

Souls4Soles has been active in Milford and lower Fairfield County for more than two years. The organization

sponsors a Barefoot Week every June that culminates in Barefoot Sunday, at which churchgoers are encouraged to donate the shoes off their feet or pairs from the back of the closets.

The Mary Taylor United Methodist Church collected more than 500 pairs during the event in June, the Rev. Virginia Hoch said. "It was very successful and we plan to do it again next year.'' The shoes collected at Mary Taylor were shipped to Soles4Souls' distribution center by Stevens.

More than half of all the shoes collected remain in the U.S., said Elizabeth Kirk, the charity's spokeswoman.

"Our founder, Wayne Elsey, was inspired to start a non-profit by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,'' Kirk said Thursday. "We've given shoes to people affect by the California wildfires and to men being released from prison. We make sure that they have a pair of dress shoes to go out on job interviews.'' Students at St. Catherine of Sienna school, at 190 Shelton Road in Trumbull, are also participating in the Soles4Souils drive this week.

Donated new or gently worn shoes can be dropped off during school hours all week; they'll be given to the charity on Thursday.

Sylvania and Alan Clark, retired empty-nesters, will be driving the Soles4SolesRV as it makes stops in Long Island and southern Connecticut this week.

Kirk said the couple has been on the road since March, traveling at first randomly but now with the intent of reaching the Pacific Northwest by Christmas, the publicist said.

Along the way the Clarks collect donations and provide education about "shoe inequity.'' "Your used pair can be someone else's new pair,'' Stevens said.

"They've already distributed 5 million pairs of shoes to 125 countries.'' Kirk said that no shoes, however worn, will be rejected.

"We classify them into categories: A,B,C and D. The Ds are shoes that someone has worn for years to mow the lawn. There's no much we can do with those, but we'll recycle them.

"One thing for sure is that we want to keep shoes out of the landfills,'' the organization's spokeswoman said.

For more information visit: www.giveshoes.org

RV Tour Article

Here is an article in Trading Markets on Allan and Silvana Clark's Soles4Souls' RV tour. For more stories on their adventures, read their blog here.


The first time a motorist waved Allan and Silvana Clark off the road on their shoe-collecting trek across America, Silvana thought their RV must have a broken taillight. Instead, the motorist said she had a bag of used shoes in her trunk that she'd been planning to drop off at a thrift store.

"Will you take them?" Silvana Clark recalled the driver saying.

The Seattle couple stopped in Cedar Rapids this week on a yearlong RV trip that began in March to represent Soles4Souls at shoe collection drives. They visited Finish Line stores at Westdale Mall and Lindale Mall on Monday and Wednesday, and the Foot Solutions store on Blairs Ferry Road on Tuesday.


The volunteers go anywhere that people have shoes to give away -- "schools, Rotary clubs, churches, road runs, community fairs," Clark said.

Runners have handed the Clarks a still-hot pair of sweat-soaked $200 running shoes at the finish line of marathons, slipped on a pair of flip-flops, and walked away.

"I have hand sanitizers with me at all time," said Silvana, a professional speaker and writer.


About 3,000 shoes were donated to victims of last year's flood in Cedar Rapids, Clark said.

The Clarks have been to Africa, Peru, Guatemala and other countries where Soles4Souls ships used shoes.

"We've had times when people would line up four to five hours in advance, and the line stretches around the block," Silvana said.

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.”

Mary Baldwin College to Conduct Shoe Drive

Mary Baldwin college in Staunton, VA is conducting a shoe drive as part of a Haitian festival on the lower campus from 5 to 9 p.m. on April 3.

People who attend the festivities are asked to bring their own "gently worn" shoes to donate to Soles4Souls. All shoes collected will go directly to helping someone in need, whether they live around the block or across an ocean.

Soles4Souls is touring North America in a custom-wrapped RV through February, 2010 in order to increase public participation in its many programs. The Soles4Souls RV Tour includes stops in thousands of cities, including Staunton, for festivals and events such as this.

"We want to invite all people from Staunton, and the surrounding community, to clean out their closets and support the work of Soles4Souls," said Wayne Elsey, founder and CEO of the shoe charity. "It's awesome to see such high level of participation in our various events, and we want to thank our caring partners at Mary Baldwin College who are giving their community a chance to come together for a simple yet important cause," he said.

“We are excited about the opportunity to partner with Soles4Souls and look forward to radio station 93.7 joining us for our event,” said MBC sophomore Melissa Elsey. “Free pedicures and massages, a water balloon dodge ball game, piñatas, and a Haitian food theme have all been planned. The event is hosted by a number of campus clubs and organizations, but we want to invite everyone in the Mary Baldwin College community. We have chosen Haiti to receive the donations of shoes collected.”

The gift of shoes does more than lift the spirits of those in desperate need. It also reduces the risk of puncture wounds, scrapes and burns to the feet, and stops hookworm infections. Also, by donating shoes to needy people, Staunton residents can greatly reduce the number of perfectly good shoes being wasted in their local landfills.

Students Pitch in Donated Shoes to 'Bury the Bug'

Their goal was to "Bury the Bug."

Mission accomplished.

Evansville Christian School students in Evansville, IN circled a convertible Volkswagen Beetle on Friday morning, filling the car with donated shoes. When they finished, the Beetle overflowed with shoes of all types.

The shoes will be shipped worldwide and distributed to children without footwear. The shoe drive, hosted by Soles4Souls, came to Evansville as part of the charity's "North American RV Tour."

The RV and Beetle was parked at The Evansville Centre for another collection during the St. Patrick's Day Run of Luck.

Parent Donna Logan helped coordinate the collection for Evansville Christian School. Her children, Brooks, 13, and Tanner, 9, collected more than 300 shoes by knocking on doors in their East Side neighborhood.

"And it really wasn't very hard," Logan said.

Logan said the shoe drive gives students a visual example of how their volunteer work can help other people.

"I just wish I could take them on a mission trip to the countries where the shoes are going," she said.

The Beetle was provided by Shoe Carnival, a corporate sponsor.

"We like to take part in any local community event by Soles4Souls," said Shoe Carnival spokeswoman Stacy Carr. "I think shoes are an everyday staple that so many people take for granted."

The RV tour is scheduled to last a year and visit cities across the country, said Sondra Clark, a spokeswoman for Soles4Souls, who is traveling on the tour.

Paul Bair, executive director of Evansville Christian School, said students from both east and west campuses participated in the shoe drive. Combined, the two campuses have about 640 students.

Bair said one of his kindergarten students collected 60 pairs of shoes.