Groups help put shoes on feet

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By Meredith Moss, Staff Writer 2:02 PM Saturday, December 17, 2011

According to the folks at Soles4Souls, the average American woman has at least 30 pairs of shoes in her closet that she never wears.

The organization is hoping men, women and children will gather up all of those extra shoes and donate them to their organization. The charity collects and distributes shoes to people living in extreme poverty and recovering natural disasters.

“It all started during the Asian Tsunami when our founder had a simple idea — to donate shoes,” says executive vice president David Graben who is headquartered in Nashville.

The group has distributed more than 16 million pair of shoes to 127 countries around the world.

New shoes are given to the needy in the United States; gently used shoes are given to micro-enterprise programs internationally.

“They give them to people who can take them to market in developing nations and increase their standard of living by selling them,” says Graben. “One million were given in Haiti since the earthquake.”

The group can use every type of shoe — every size, shape, style, color. They can use men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, anything from a stiletto to a flip-flop.

“We sort every single pair so we can give shoes that fit and are appropriate to the right person,” Graben says. Shoes that can no longer be worn or are falling apart are sent to Pakistan where they are taken apart and can be used to create new shoes or trinkets that can be sold.

In our area, a shoe drive sponsored by California Closets is currently under way and will run through Dec. 31. Shoes for donation can be taken to the California Closets Dayton Design Center, 4900 Parkway Drive, Suite 100, Mason, OH, 45040.

You can also drop off shoes at California Closets sister company, CertaPro Painters of Dayton, 4419 Linden Ave., Your shoes can also be shipped to Soles4Souls: c/o Keller Logistics Group, 24862 Elliott Rd., Defiance, OH 43512.

To learn more, visit wwwgiveshoes .org or call (937) 293-1145.

If your nonprofit group would like to share a wish list with readers, write to Meredith Moss: MMoss@coxohio.com Please include a daytime phone number.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or MMoss@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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