by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Boy Scouts in central Minnesota hope to collect up to 25,000 pairs of used, gently-worn shoes by April 16.
The shoes will be redistributed, via the non-profit Soles4Souls in countries around the world, including the United States. The local project is sponsored by the Central Minnesota Council of Boy Scouts whose members are putting door-knob flyers about the shoe pick-up drive at residences throughout the area. However, those who do not receive the flyers can still donate shoes. They can be brought to the Boy Scout Headquarters building at 1191 Scout Drive in Sartell just off Pinecone Road S. Drop shoes off there by the deadline, April 16.
Soles4Souls was founded in 2006 when the need for shoes became so apparent after two horrible natural disasters: the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Most people in industrialized countries have no idea just how important a decent pair of shoes can be to someone living in rock-bottom poverty. In such areas, walking is the only “mode of transportation” for most people, who have to walk sometimes miles to obtain food, water or get to school or a job.
Walking on sore or injured feet can become unbearable and even impossible, not to mention the dangers of contracting terrible diseases that can enter the body through the feet: hookworm, threadworm and jiggers.
Since its founding, Soles4Souls has distributed more than 26 million pairs of shoes to people desperately in need of them in 127 countries and all of the 50 states.
For more information about the local Scouts’ shoe-collection efforts, call JaLee Noelting at 320-251-3930.
Shoes have long been precious possessions throughout history in times of catastrophes and in regions of crushing poverty. This famous photo is of a 6-year-old World War II Austrian orphan named “Werfel,” who smiled with pure joy when he was given a pair of shoes donated by the Junior American Red Cross. The photo, taken on the steps of an orphanage in Vienna, had an immediate worldwide impact after it was printed in LIFE magazine, Dec. 30, 1946.
