More than 1,300 shoes collected locally for Soles4Souls

Local students, organizations and community members have teamed together this week to collect hundreds of shoes that will be delivered to the needy in the United States and abroad.

Nearly 500 pairs -- including boots, flip-flops and tennis shoes -- were tied together and stacked in boxes Thursday afternoon at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.

The shoes were added to the 1,300 pairs that already had been collected since Monday.

The local effort first was organized in 2009, when Marcy's Planet Shoes in Cape Girardeau began collecting new and gently used shoes to donate to Soles4Souls, a not-for-profit organization based in Nashville, Tennessee.

Robyn Jones, the store's business manager, said within a three-day period, Marcy's collected 300 pairs.

"The next year, we sent out mailers and other people got involved," she said. "I think we doubled our amount in just a three-day span."

Soles4Souls collects new and used shoes and clothes from individuals, schools, faith-based institutions and other organizations. More than 22 million pairs of shoes have been donated directly to disadvantaged communities in all 50 states, as well as 127 countries as the organization works toward "wearing out poverty."

During the past five years, Marcy's has partnered with the church, students at Southeast Missouri State University and other local organizations. Together, they have since collected and donated more than 21,000 pairs of shoes.

Cheryl Reinagel, who serves on the mission board at St. Andrew, is an adviser to student organizations for Soles4Souls at Southeast, where she also is a staff member at the university's department of agriculture.

"(Soles4Souls) does a great thing, because it satisfies both sides for the people who want to support other countries and the people who want to take care of our own here," Reinagel said.

The organization set a goal Jan. 1 to collect 1 million pairs of shoes by April 22.

"We hope to reach our goal by Earth Day, so we can all proudly say we've kept 1 million pairs of shoes out of our landfills, which makes our world a better place," Soles4Souls' website says.

And students in the agriculture department at Southeast, as well as members of the Gamma Sigma Sigma service sorority, are doing their part to help reach that goal by collecting shoes on campus.

Catalina Mahr, service vice president for the sorority, said about 30 girls have been helping tie together and pack the shoes so far this week, and more will volunteer through Sunday.

Donations can be made at Marcy's from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Shoes also can be dropped off at the church from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The donations will be placed in a 53-foot trailer that will be delivered to Nashville on Monday by Genesis Transportation.

This year's collection week is in honor of Kermit "Moose" Meystedt, who was the first to donate a trailer, Reinagel said. After he died, the new owners of Genesis continued the tradition.

"There's no way we'd be able to do this otherwise," Jones said, adding the store also ships shoes to Soles4Souls throughout the year, but the cost of shipping is too high to send more than a few pairs at a time.

Jones said she first heard about the organization during a shoe convention, where a representative was telling retailers about what Soles4Souls does.

"We liked the idea so much that we thought, 'We'll try it and see what happens,'" she said. "It's just an old pair of shoes you don't want any longer. You're making a huge impact on somebody else's life with just a small act of your own."

At the church Thursday, Kelly Morton said she is on the board of directors for Seeds of Dignity Ministries, which is partnered with Soles4Souls.

Last year, she visited a village in the Philippines where some of the shoes had been delivered.

"They never had a new pair of shoes," she said. "That's a very, very big deal."

Morton said she also can't imagine walking barefoot in some of the villages. But on Oct. 10 last year, she and others participated in a "barefoot day."

"It was cold and raining all day long," she said. But afterward, Morton realized she only endured it for a day, while others go without shoes every day, "or maybe their entire life."

klamb@semissourian.com

388-3639

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804 N. Cape Rock Drive, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

3050 William St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.