Shoe drive for needy here, around world kicks off

At various locations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson people are kicking off their shoes -- so to speak -- for Soles4Souls, a not-for-profit institution that, according to its website, fights the effect of poverty through shoe and clothing distribution.

The footwear will be heading to 129 countries and domestically to disaster relief victims, disadvantaged children, domestic abuse shelters and homeless shelters, according to Southeast Missourian archives. Soles4Souls also provide footwear globally to orphanages, communities surrounded by landfills and to villages that do not have access to footwear.

Cheryl Reinagel is coordinating community Soles4Souls efforts, along with Rhonda Weller-Stillson and Robyn Jones, business manager of Marcy's Planet Shoes. Reinagel is an administrative assistant in the Department of Agriculture at Southeast Missouri State University and Weller-Stillson is director and associate dean of the Earl and Margie Holland School of Visual and Performing Arts at Southeast.

Reinagel and Weller-Stillson were at St. Andrew Lutheran Church on Sunday to launch the Soles4Souls collection there.

A proclamation for Soles4Souls Week is on the Cape Girardeau City Council agenda for tonight.

"It's a simple thing to do because everybody has a pair of shoes they're not wearing in their closet," Reinagel said. She added that people can also buy an inexpensive pair of shoes to contribute.

The shoes, she said, provide protection from disease and help children attend school. Many schools around the world won't let students attend if they're not wearing shoes, Reinagel said.

And the condition of the shoes doesn't matter. Even if they have holes, they can be repaired, and if they can't be fixed, they can be recycled, she said.

John Dehne, lead pastor-elect at St. Andrew Lutheran, is experiencing his first year with Soles4Souls. "I think it's great. This is what the people of God are supposed to do is ... use all the gifts God has given us and use them to serve other people," he said.

"We believe that everything is His and shoes are just part of it," Dehne said.

In addition to St. Andrew, shoe collections also are ongoing at Marcy's Planet Shoes, Southeast Missouri State University and other area schools and businesses, Reinagel said.

There is a Soles 4 Souls group at Southeast, as well, for which Reinagel is the adviser. She said Southeast's regional campuses in Kennett, Malden and Sikeston also are collecting shoes.

Last year, Reinagel said, 150 cartons of shoes -- close to 3,000 pair -- were collected. In the last three years, she said, 13,800 pair of shoes have been collected.

All donated shoes will make their way to St. Andrew where volunteers from the community and Southeast will help pack boxes and load a semi-truck trailer, provided by Genesis Transportation, which transport the shoes to Soles4Souls headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., at no cost. From that point, the shoes head to an Alabama warehouse to undergo the next steps for shipment, Reinagel said.

More community members, businesses and schools have joined the Soles4Souls effort this year, largely because of social media, Reinagel said. A corner of the lobby at St. Andrew was already starting to fill up with bags of shoes and shoes were stashed in boxes under a display about Soles4Souls on the second floor of the church Sunday.

"I think the outpouring will continue as the week goes on. We will accept any size, any season, any style, any condition," Reinagel said.

The shoe drive will run through Sunday. For more information on Soles4Souls, visit soles4souls.org.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

388-36390