Let It Shoe: Holiday Charity Drive is Good for the Sole

They’re in your way anyway. They clutter up the back of your closet, get kicked under your bed, and disorganize your shoe organizer. Instead, those shoes you never wear anymore could help people the world over.

Shoeman Water Projects turn donated shoes into clean drinking water in third world nations, and it’s not a Christmas miracle. They do it all year round.

Marjorie Pingel, a spokesperson for the Shoeman effort, said the used shoe effort is a triple-win.

“They sell the shoes to an exporter, who turns around and sells them to people in places like Haiti and Kenya,” Pingel said. “They get these shoes for pennies on the dollar, and then they set up a micro-business in their countries where they sell people there affordable shoes.”

Shoeman Water Projects, started by George “The Shoeman” Hutchings, then takes the money from the exporter and buys drilling equipment to dig safe wells for drinking water in developing countries, she said.

“It’s so sad to think that people in those countries don’t have clean drinking water, something we take for granted here in the United States,” Pingel said.

The charitable organization is hoping to collect 255,639 pairs of shoes a year-end push to meet their goal of 1 million shoes in 2011. In January, the Shoeman will return to

Two Richmond Heights stores are centers in an effort to collect one million pairs of shoes:

* New Balance store, 6678 Clayton Road (near the Schnucks store)

* Porter Paints, 6717 Clayton Road

In fact, New Balance and Porter Paint stores throughout the metro area collect shoes. To find other drop-off locations, see www.shoeman.org/donate-shoes where you can search by zip code.

“We have three bags full of shoes right now,” said John Flavin, assistant manager at the Richmond Heights New Balance store. “That’s all happened in less than a week—Monday through Thursday.

He said it’s a good feeling to help out others, especially when all it takes are shoes we no longer wear.

Flavin said, “We’ve gotten a very good reaction from our customers. They thank us for being a drop-off point.”

So, let it shoe.