7,700 pairs of shoes. Take a moment to really wrap your head around that number. 7,700. How many closets could you fill with 7,700 shoes? I’m not exactly sure, but I do know that 7,700 shoes fills 308 large trash bags. Three hundred and EIGHT.
What do all of these shoes mean? Well, simply stated, they clothe children who may be lacking in the ability to buy shoes and clothes. Of these 7,700 shoes, 500 were in good enough shape to go directly into the BPB clothing pantry. Funds2Org purchased the other shoes to supply to third world countries for over $3,000. 100% of these funds will be used to purchase SMOD (uniform) clothing for children in Guilford County.
The entire community really got behind this project…VF filled their shoe drive boxes so frequently that pick-ups from their location had to increase in frequency. They also donated clothes to the pantry and let BPB purchase additional clothing supplies from their company store.
Omega Sports and Fleet Feet promoted the drive, served as a drive location and donated shoes.
Lawndale Baptist Church hosted a drive and collected over 700 shoes…10% of the total.
Kim and Jason Engle led a shoe drive at Honda Aircraft Company, making their own donation boxes and delivering the banded shoes themselves. They then led their son’s Cub Scout troop to continue collecting. Their efforts brought in over 400 shoes.
Brittani Littlejohn is doing her senior project with BPB. She began collecting shoes in the final two weeks of the drive. She collected over 400 shoes by scouring yard sales, soliciting help from consignment stores, collecting shoes at her church and spreading the word to everyone she knew. She banded the shoes together and helped load the truck. And she did it all with a contagious smile on her face.
Our largest thanks goes to our Clothing Pantry Chair, Kellie Gallerani, for spearheading this campaign. For 3 months, she collected, bagged and stored shoes. It is because of her that local children will have the clothing they need for school.
It is impossible to highlight all of the people and organizations within our community who pulled together to make this shoe drive so successful. However, take a minute to peruse the extensive list of organizations and people below who helped. It is an amazing thing to see a community come together with one common goal. It is this community effort that yielded such a successful drive.
Written on 10/29/2014 by Blogger Courtney Murphy
SHOE DRIVE PARTICIPANTS:
Greensboro Day School – Summer school program and lower school – Gillian Goodman and Mary Dator
Honda Aircraft Company – Jason and Kim Engle
Guilford Park Presbyterian – VBS, preschool, and church-wide – Liz Stewart and Kim Row
Proehlific Park – Tyler Wilson
St. Paul’s Kids Consignment Sale
VF Corporate – Carli Guanciale, Angela Adams, Lycia Phipps, and Anita Graham
VF Jeanswear – Dana Hensley and Kim Black
Omega Sports – multiple donations and donation drop-off site – Cleo Faucette and Diane Urban
Fleet Feet/Off’n Running – donations and donation drop-off site, Fleet Feet Pickle
Kirkwood 5K
Ridgewood Swim and Tennis Club – Danielle Rattray and Michelle James
Lake Jeanette Swim and Tennis Club
Greensboro Radiology – 7 locations – Mark Gallerani, Katie Barbee, Myrtle Rapp, Sally Hodges, Sherry Nance, Brandy Mullis
Canopy Partners – Holly Messick
Alicia Warrick – shoe and clothing drive
First Baptist Church – Gina Waters and Linda Denmark and FBC Consignment Sale – Autumn Culbreth
Kid’s Exchange Consignment Sale – Kim Pettit
St. Francis Episcopal Church – Dan Jones
Lawndale Baptist Church – Rodney Navey & Nathan Wallace
Christ United Methodist Church – High Point – Kim Collins
Girl Scout Troup 40153 – Kimmerly Milner
Brownie Troop 41226 – Deborah Flowers
United Health Care – Marcie Neal
Temple Emanuel – Karen Slone
Friendly Avenue Consignment Sale – Sandy Johnson
Greensboro Grasshoppers
Marleigh Rice – girl who collected shoes instead of birthday presents
Valerie Ward
First Step Project Greensboro – Cathy Flannery
St. Andrews Episcopal Church VBS – Audra Abt
High Point University
Christ United Methodist Church Consignment Sale – Greensboro
Guilford College United Methodist Consignment Sale
Lincoln Financial – Katherine Martin-Recio
Analog Devices – Sandy Puckett
Cub Scout Troop Den 8, Pack 104 – Kimberly Engle
Brittani Littlejohn – senior project
Kira Ware – senior project
INDIVIDUAL BAG CHALLENGE PARTICIPANTS:
Leigh Ann Oldis
Heidi Fleshman
Beth Maher – also donated 20 cardboard donation boxes
Jenny Romano
Regina Schamberger
Jenny Denenny
Joanne Spillane
