CC’s Soles4Souls shoe drive was a resounding success, as many faculty, staff, and students stepped up and donated their old shoes. The campus-wide project was launched in conjunction with a children’s book published by Charlotte Blessing, CC’s director of international programs.
The book, “New Old Shoes,” is told from perspective of a pair of shoes, and was inspired by the secondhand clothing and shoe markets in East Africa, where Blessing lived for 13 years.
Blessing’s book is narrated by a pair of red sneakers, and follows their journey from their first home with a young American boy to children in Africa. When the sneakers become worn-looking, the family sends them to Africa, and a boy there receives the shoes with as much excitement as the original owner. After adventures with him, the shoes end up with a girl who walks to school in them, and ultimately uses them as the hands for a scarecrow.
Blessing read her book to “Little CC” at the CC Children’s Center, and the children, parents, and staff there donated shoes there as well.
The Colorado College community donated enough shoes to fill 22 boxes. Lauren Paley ’11, Kasi Carter ’11, and Andrew Baird ’12, Center for Service and Learning interns, spent two days sorting and boxing the piles of shoes, which ranged from flip-flops and pumps to running shoes and consstruction boots. The shoes were shipped to a Soles4Souls warehouse, where they will be sorted and distributed around the world.
