Soles4Souls nears end of shoe drive

Soles4Souls' annual shoe drive wraps up Monday at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.

As of Saturday night, 4,379 pairs had been collected, and at least a hundred more were donated Sunday, said Shelbey Walker, president of the Soles4Souls on Campus program at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau and vice president of service sorority Gamma Sigma Sigma.

Walker said Soles4Souls partnered with Marcy's Planet Shoes for another successful shoe drive week.

To get the word out, Walker said several sponsors act as collection points around town, which increases visibility, and a lot of people hear about the shoe drive through social media or word of mouth.

"Marcy's had a billboard for it this year," which was a big help, Walker said.

Other collection points around town this year were Missouri Running Co., HealthPoint Fitness in Cape Girardeau and Jackson and several locations on Southeast's campus.

Some high school groups also brought shoes, Walker said, as this shoe drive coincided with the Future Farmers of America, or FFA, competition at Southeast.

Walker said the drive is exciting. "For me, it feels good to help those who need it," she said, adding some recipients in developing nations are able to engage in micro-enterprise, where residents are given extra shoes and can turn a small profit reselling them once a community's needs are met.

Cheryl Reinagel, advisor for the shoe drive, said she's extremely proud of the hard work the students have put into the project.

Reinagel said she's been with the university 19 years, and when she found out about this organization, she was eager to be part of it.

Marcy's Planet Shoes operations manager Robyn Jones said this is the ninth year for the drive, which Jones started in 2009 after she heard about it at a trade convention.

"We wanted to see what we could do" at Marcy's, Jones said.

The first year, they collected about 350 pairs of shoes over three days, Jones said.

"Then Cheryl contacted me," Jones said, and the partnership snowballed from there.

Genesis Transportation donated use of a semi trailer 53 feet long, which is parked at St. Andrew Lutheran Church at 804 N. Cape Rock Drive in Cape Girardeau until today at 10 a.m., Reinagel said.

Reinagel said having a place to store the donated shoes and a way to get them to the Soles4Souls distribution center in Nashville, Tennessee, makes a donation drive of this volume possible.

"It's made the difference," she said. "We could not do it without that."

Reinagel said the students' generosity in volunteering was another huge help in sorting, organizing, boxing and loading the donations.

Walker said the funding for rubber bands to bundle the shoes and tape to close the boxes came from Student Support Services, and the boxes themselves came from a private donor.

Walker said while most people just donate shoes, if a donor gives money instead, that money goes toward pairs of new shoes for the drive.

"I bought 150 pairs of flip-flops at Walmart this week," Walker said, which went together in boxes marked "New."

Walker said they sort the shoes by pair, tying or rubber-banding them together, but not by size or style.

"The new ones go in their own boxes usually," Walker said.

Reinagel said they encourage donations of every kind of shoe, "from ballet slippers to boots in the barn."

"We had a pair of baby-size Converse shoes come in," she said, as well as a size-17 pair of tennis shoes.

Southeast senior Rebecca Spears, member of Gamma Sigma Sigma, said this is one of her favorite projects. "I like the message it has, all the people it helps worldwide and also locally," she said.

Jasmine Jones, a sophomore at Southeast, said she got involved with the drive through TRIO, or Southeast's Student Support Services, as part of a scholarship requirement. "It's fun to see," she said, "and is a good way to help other people."

Jasmine Jones said nearly 5,000 people will be helped with this year's donations.

Taylor Roth, a sophomore at Saxony Lutheran High School in Jackson, said he enjoys helping people who can't really afford or provide shoes.

Roth, who first volunteered with the Soles4Souls shoe drive in 2011 as a Boy Scout, started volunteering again last year when he entered Saxony.

Roth said most of what he does is help band shoes together, and load boxes onto the trailer.

Robyn Jones said she wants people to know Marcy's Planet Shoes is a year-round drop-off center for Soles4Souls, adding Marcy's keeps a carton in the back and when it's full, they cover the cost to ship it to Soles4Souls' headquarters.

If people want to donate shoes but missed this year's shoe drive, Robyn Jones said, "we encourage people to bring small donations through the year," she said.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent addresses:

3050 William St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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