Annual Shoe Drive Continues to Grow

It was a record-breaker.

The drive — it was themed “Kick Off Your Shoes & Reuse” — resulted in the collection of 1,374 pairs of shoes, the most in the history of the event. 

The shoe drive typically takes place around Earth Day. This year’s drive ran from April 23 through May 7 as shoes were dropped off at collection sites around Randolph County including several local churches and schools. The Lynn Friends Church collected two pick-up truck loads of shoes on their own. The FFA chapter from Union City High School helped to pair and sort the shoes which were brought to the Randolph County 4-H Fairgrounds.

The Journey Home offered the use of its box truck. The FFA students and The Journey Home volunteer Rick Goode loaded the shoes into the truck, which Goode then drove to deliver the shoes to Changing Footprints in Rushville, an organization that has been a part of the shoe drive every year. 

Changing Footprints will distribute the shoes to over 100 Indiana organizations where they will go to school programs, domestic abuse shelters, low income assistance programs, disaster relief programs, children’s services, homeless services and others.

Remaining shoes are then sent to help people in other countries. Shoes in poor condition are recycled, so none of the donated footwear goes to waste.

“Every year the shoe drive seems to get bigger and bigger,” said Tonia Williams of the Randolph County Recycling District. “We have a lot of generous people in Randolph County who help us out with this every year.”