Soles4Souls collects more than 7,000 pairs of shoes

The Soles4Souls initiative as of Sunday has collected 7,070 pairs of shoes, including 1,216 dropped off Saturday.

Soles4Souls is a not-for-profit institution that, according to its website, fights the effect of poverty through shoe and clothing distribution.

The footwear, dropped off at locations around the region, will be distributed in 129 countries and domestically to disaster relief victims, disadvantaged children, domestic abuse shelters and homeless shelters, according to Southeast Missourian archives. Soles4Souls also provides footwear globally to orphanages, communities surrounded by landfills and to villages that do not have access to footwear.

Cheryl Reinagel, who coordinated community Soles4Souls efforts, along with Rhonda Weller-Stilson and Robyn Jones, business manager of Marcy's Planet Shoes, said the number of pairs of shoes collected this year exceeds the high of 6,379 in 2011.

Genesis Transportation will transport the shoes today 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 has said.