You may no longer need that pair of sneakers that you only wore a couple of times, but chances are, someone else in the world does.
When Mona Purdy traveled to Central America in 1999, she was appalled when she saw that village children were at risk for infections leading to amputation simply because they did not have shoes. Purdy held a shoe drive at home and brought the shoes to an orphanage in Honduras, thinking that it would be a one-time good deed.
But when she realized the great impact that her efforts had on the orphanage, she was determined to do more to help. Purdy began connecting with different organizations and businesses to make it possible to collect and ship as many pairs of shoes to as many people as she could, creating the Alsip-based Share Your Soles organization. Today, Share Your Soles has distributed over 1 million pairs of shoes over the past 12 years to impoverished children and adults across the globe.
Share Your Soles is always looking for shoes in good condition, as well as new businesses to act as drop-off locations.
For a list of drop-off locations in the Chicago area, click here.
If you would like your business to be a Share Your Soles drop-off location, e-mail info@shareyoursoles.org.
