Archive for the 'Awesome Students' Category

SLU needs your shoes! If you’re going home for spring break, think about bringing back a pair of shoes and donating it to the SLU Shoe Drive!

This is an event that unites students, faculty and staff toward one goal – Donate 6,000 pounds to the Shoeman Water Projects; help bring clean water to citizens of Haiti and Africa; and keep the “Boot” at SLU for another year. The Battle of the Boot is a friendly challenge between SLU and Washington University. Last year combined the two universities collected over 10,000 pounds of shoes, and SLU got the inaugural trophy. The SLU Staff Advisory Committee sponsors this event. 

This year, we need everyone to pitch in and toss in a pair of shoes. Flip flops, sandals, boots, high heels, tennis shoes, cleats, etc. As long as the shoes are wearable and there are no holes in the soles and they aren’t torn up, we can take them.

There are bins throughout campus that you can drop shoes off in. Locations include Chaifetz, DuBourg Hall, the office in Fusz, the law and Pius Library, Verheagan Hall, Wool Center, Allied Health Professional Building, Salus Center, and the School of Nursing. They are white narrow bins. There are also large green trash bins with a shoe poster on top in the Hickory East and West parking garages.

There shoe drive ends May 31st, so there’s plenty of time for you to drop a pair of shoes off! We need roughly 2,000 pairs of shoes each month to reach 7,000 pounds. If every student donates just one pair of shoes, we’d be over our goal! If you’d like to get more involved other than donating, contact Yvonne McCool at ymccoolm@slu.edu. They are looking for students who have time once or twice a month to help sort and count shoes or who can help set up more donation boxes around campus (specifically in dorms) and can monitor them. It’s for a great cause, so please reach out if you’re able to volunteer! Services hours are offered to those who help.

The shoes collected are given to people who need them to help protect their feet from injury and parasites, and the clean water allows for clean drinking water, reduced chances of disease, better hygiene and hope for a better future. Where else can you go to “toss” a pair of shoes and impact lives forever in Haiti and Africa? They’re making a difference, one sole at a time.