On March 10th, a few classmates, and I visited Shoes for Soles in Alsip Illinois. We would be doing community service from 10a.m. to 1p.m. When I first showed up, a bunch of people, including myself, were standing outside, I was pretty curious on what we were going to be doing. Obviously by the name of the organization I knew we were going to be working with shoes, but wasn’t sure who they were going to, or what the purpose if any, the organization had. Not long after more students arrived we were let into the building. I noticed that even though you weren’t required to, or specifically asked, many of us brought shoes, some even a small donation.
Once we were inside, we were directed to an area where we watched three short films on the organization, what they do, and who they help. The first film focused on how the organization started. The original goal was to send a thousand shoes to Haiti. Shortly afterwards, the founder realized that it couldn’t stop at just Haiti, thus Shoes for Soles was born. Shoes for Soles sends new, and lightly worn shoes all over the world to countries, and areas that need them most. Many children that are less fortunate than we are, and have been, have no shoes, and many have to walk across gravel, dirt, and forests to get water, or to another village. While watching the movie I also noticed many of the roads that the citizens were walking on were filled with debris, broken glass, bottles, and other garbage, which could obviously hurt pretty badly if stepped on. One part of the movie that disturbed me a bit, was that children put tar on their feet to help protect them when they walk. Tar is better than nothing at all, but its definitely not good to constantly put tar on your feet every day just to get water.
The second film was not specific to one location, there was a short skit about a young girl, probably between 12 and 15 that at one time walked for long periods of time without shoes just to get water, and go to school. She would make these trips to school and back twice a day, and to get water usually daily. The path she walked on was mainly dirt, and gravel. Walking miles on rocks is pretty uncomfortable, as a kid I remember walking in the driveway without shoes and the small pebbles would hurt when I stepped on them, but the rocks this young girl walked on daily were twice the size. What’s even worse is that this young girl had no protection on her feet at all, where as some communities put tar on their feet for some protection from the ground.
There was another segment of the video that explained even if the poorest of communities to attend a school, shoes were mandatory. Even if someone could afford the education, they would still need to be able to afford the proper dress attire. When I heard that I thought this was crazy! The children are trying their hardest to survive, an education could and would definitely help them go further in life, and here some of the children are being denied this great opportunity for education because they haven’t got any shoes.
The most touching part of the video, was when a doctor explained how important and beneficial the shoes are to the communities less fortunate. The doctor told the organizations founder that he has traveled to many different villages and has had to do amputations on people because they get infections, and are unable to afford treatment when needed, or the treatment that is needed is unavailable, so the infections get even worse, leading the doctor no other choice. At this point, Shoes for Soles purpose was very clear to me. By providing shoes to the people who are in need of them, the organization provides comfort, better help, along with education opportunities.
Shoes provide much needed comfort to the people who wear them. The long walks are still long, but they will hurt much less, and can at least be bearable now. The shoes donated also provide better health conditions. Believe it or not, the arch support built into many shoes help the back, as well as the heel. The long paths that are walked are always cluttered with rocks, dirt, or debris, if any of that gets into a cut, or bruise, it can easily lead to more devastating infections. Although the shoes cannot cure what various infections are doing, or can do, the shoes do help on keeping cuts and bruises protected from the outside world.
After the videos we were directed into the warehouse, at first it looked pretty small, but as I turned the corner I seen a huge warehouse, that seemed like it went on forever. The warehouse was donated by another company, which allowed Shoes for Soles to operate out of. The main woman who started the organization in Alsip, came out and thanked us all for attending and helping out. She also told us that soon she would be leaving to visit Haiti, and she was bringing more shoes with her. Shortly afterwards my fellow peers and I carried black garbage bags filled with shoes to the other end of the warehouse where they were then going to be shipped out. After the bags were all moved we split up into groups.
My group was in charge of signing. There wasn’t anyone giving directions, or telling us what to do, this organization was a hands on, do what your able to, to help out, kind of place. Which I really enjoyed. We didn’t have anyone hounding us to work faster, or do a better job. Instead we all did our own thing to help out. We were told that the organization was having issues with sorting out the shoes, so it was up to us to try and figure out a system that was easy and worked. So we had signs, that were labeled with various different shoe styles, as well as shoes for different genders and ages. Shortly after figuring out the signs, two other students and myself paired up with a young man that worked for the organization. He explained to us that he had just started and was still relatively new to the job and the cause.
Once we paired up with him, we began assembling boxes, and placing shoes inside the boxes, then labeling them with the amount of shoes inside, along with the style. It was very important to know the exact amount of shoes put inside each box because if customs checked the boxes and a pair was missing, or if the count was wrong, the entire box would be confiscated, and there was no way the organization could get the box back. While working with my group we all talked and I found out that the two students were both from another class at Moraine Valley, and were offered extra credit to attend the community service. I also found out that the young man that worked for the organization originally was given court ordered community service, and the founder gave him a second chance in life, and offered him a job. At that moment I realized how important, and true to their word the organization is. Not only did it help communities hundreds and thousands of miles away, but it also gave this young man a second chance at life, by offering him something no one else would, a job. For the rest of my visit I continued to box up shoes, and helped label boxes, even when others left for a lunch break, which from what I understand was kindly donated from Jimmy Johns, (or someone was kind enough to pay for it).
On my way out of the warehouse I noticed a bunch of shoes on tables, most were female shoes, but they had some male shoes. At first I thought these were shoes that were being processed, or couldn’t be sent out, but it turns out that Shoes for Soles was selling the shoes. At first I was a bit confused and was wondering why they were selling donated shoes, but then when I asked, a woman explained to me that the shoes sold here cannot be sent out because on the terrain they would be unusable. The woman also told me that the money earned from the shoe sales was used to ship the donated shoes that could be worn, out to the various places that needed them.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience, and didn’t think of it as community service, instead I thought of it as helping out someone less fortunate, and was happy doing so. I met three cool people, and really had fun helping out where I could. I would definitely recommend anyone and everyone to go and check out the Shoes for Soles warehouse on a Saturday that they have free.
