In a world where Imedla Marcos owned more than 1,200 pairs and designer Manolo Blahnik is peddling $14,000 alligator-skin boots, many consider shoes the crown of high fashion. But 300 million children around the world don’t even own a pair of sneakers to protect their feet from broken glass or keep their toes warm on an icy, winter evening.
Sissy Harris, owner of Peter Kate Shoes in Greenville, is doing her best to change that by collecting new and gently used shoes for Soles 4 Souls, a nonprofit group that donates shoes to people around the world.
Harris read about the charity online and decided to set up a collection box inside her store, offering customers a 15 percent discount if they bring shoes to donate.
“There are shoes out there, sitting in the backs of our closets, that someone would treasure,” she said.
Peter Kate caters to a fashion-minded market, Harris said, and people tend to take for granted the fact that most Americans buy shoes based on looks, not because they are an absolute necessity.
But without shoes, children can contract diseases or injure their feet, which could lead to life-threatening conditions, especially in third world countries.
Millions of people were forced to live in third-world conditions after the tsunami struck Southeast Asia in 2004. It generated horrific images of devastation that inspired Soles 4 Souls founder Wayne Elsey to start a shoe drive to help tsunami victims.
He founded the organization in Nashville, Tenn., after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and his organization has distributed millions of shoes. The shoes are sent to areas struck by natural disasters, camps for disadvantaged children and abuse shelters around the world.
Soles 4 Souls estimates that more than 1.5 billion pairs of wearable shoes are sitting in closets across the country, gathering dust. Harris has collected more than 100 pairs of them in two days and hopes to gather many more of those billions before the collection ends on Sept. 11.
People are reluctant to throw away old shoes, she said, so the collection gives them a chance to part with their shoes in a positive way. It also gives parents a place to send shoes their children have grown out of, without wasting perfectly good footwear, she said. Donating shoes is also a form of recycling and keeping loafers out of the landfill can only help the environment, Harris said.
It feels good to be doing something proactive to help others, she said.
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Bring your new or gently used men’s, women’s or children’s shoes to Peter Kate Shoes, 3830 Kennett Pike in Greenville between now and Sept. 11 to receive a 15 percent discount on one item in the store.
