Life without shoes

Other than the daily selection process, how often do you think about your shoes? Could you imagine life without them? If you think your dogs are barking after a long day of walking or shopping in heels, think about the pain if you didn't have shoes.

Well, there's a lot of people all over the world, and right here at home, that don't have shoes. And that means they're exposed to cuts, scrapes and other harm on a daily basis.Think about the nastiness you see on the street, in the park or mass transit. Yeah, pretty bad.

There's a great group called Soles4Souls that have come together to give shoes where they're needed. So far, they've already put over 4 million pairs of shoes on feet since they started this venture! Just last week they held one of their Barefoot Week events right outside my office in Portland where they gave 5,000 pairs of shoes to our large homeless youth population and families living on the streets.

Watching this event throughout the day from my desk broke my heart. I watched families wait for hours in line to get shoes for their young children while I counted my blessings knowing my kids were running around in good shoes at the park.

They're doing a great job but they need our help because there's still so many people, even kids, without proper shoes. So, here's a few easy way we can all help protect their feet. 

Find a shoe drive near you and help keep the 300 million pairs of shoes Americans toss in the trash (yes, 300 million!) out of landfills - and help someone else!

Host a shoe drive with your group, neighbors or friends. Soles4Souls makes it super easy.

Donate your gently worn shoes. Wouldn't it be great if Imelda Marcos did this?

From their site you can learn more about donating cash, or your time on a relief trip.

Let's all commit to one thing so we can support Soles4Souls in their mission to change the world, one pair at a time. My kids are at that age where they're growing out of shoes while they still look new so we'll be taking ours to a drop off location.

What can you do? Do you have one pair of shoes to donate?

  

This was one of those families so happy with their new shoes.

 

Soles4Souls volunteers hard at work with smiles on their faces as they help folks living on the street find shoes that fit.

Don't forget to sign up for delivery of Change Becomes Change right in your In Box and share this with a friend looking to help make this a better world.

Comments

[Michael]

"If you think your dogs are barking after a long day of walking or shopping in heels, think about the pain if you didn't have shoes."

I must take exception to this quote. I guarantee you that if you shopped barefoot all day -- which I've done -- your feet would feel a LOT better than if you'd done it in heels.

Bare feet are not inherently bad and going barefoot isn't inherently dangerous. What's more, some of use *choose* to go barefoot for health and comfort benefits.

That said, I do realize that no one in our society can go barefoot all of the time. So I don't denigrate the cause and I fully support finding ways to reuse shoes instead of throwing them away in landfills.

Smiles,
Michael
http://barefootmichael.blogspot.com
http://www.twitter.com/barefootmichael

[Gina]

Thanks for your comment, Michael. I enjoy going barefoot too - at home, in the car, at the park. The big difference is that you and I have a choice.

Millions don't. And these are the folks walking the streets with sharp objects, trash and other potentially harmful stuff. They're also carrying their belongings on their back sometimes which is really hard on the body.

A comfortable pair of athletic shoes would be a nice welcome for these achy feet and bodies.

Maybe you have some to donate since it sounds like you don't wear them much?