Soles4Souls Week Begins March 25th

Southeast Missouri State University's Horticulture Club and Collegiate Farm Bureau are co-sponsoring an initiative to collect new and gently used shoes March 25-April 1 as part of the Soles4Souls shoe campaign. The dedication, enthusiasm, and creativity of the students has been amazing! They spent hours painting the wall mural, where thousands of student pass each week. Great job, students!

Twenty collection barrels have been placed around campus for students to donate shoes for people living in extreme poverty and recovering from natural disasters. St. Andrew Lutheran Church, 804 N. Cape Rock Dr., and Marcy's Planet Shoes, 3050 William St., both in Cape Girardeau and co-sponsors of the effort, will be collecting shoes for Soles4Souls throughout the week at their locations.

A table will be set up in Southeast's University Center March 25-April 1 to raise awareness of Soles4Souls. Many student volunteers are participating in the effort as well.

The City of Cape Girardeau has proclaimed March 25-April 1 as Soles4Souls Week in Cape Girardeau, acknowledging Southeast Missouri State University's Horticulture Club and Collegiate Farm Bureau along with St. Andrew Lutheran Church and Marcy's Planet Shoes as the official sponsors for Soles4Souls Week.

Capping the week-long collection during Soles4Souls Week, will be the National Soles4Souls University RV Tour, which will make its way to Southeast March 28 to help support the cause. The RV will also visit St. Andrew Lutheran Church, March's and Alma Schrader Elementary School during its stop in Cape Girardeau.

Soles4Souls Inc. is a Nashville, Tenn.-based shoe charity that provides shoes to those in need. Since 2005, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 17 million pairs of shoes and gives one pair of shoes to a person in need every seven seconds. After the tragedies of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the Asian Tsunami, Soles4Souls gave more than 1 million shoes to the victims of these natural disasters. The shoe charity recognizes its success as a result of individuals and industry partners who clean out closets and warehouses so individuals around the world can have a better life through Americans' excess. Soles4Souls has two divisions, Clothes4Souls and Hope4Souls, that provide other necessities such as clothes to those in need.

For more information about Southeast's collection efforts, please contact Cheryl Reinagel at creinagel@semo.edu or Rhonda Weller-Stilson at rstilson@semo.edu. For more information about Soles4Souls, please visit www.giveshoes.org.