The Villa Interact Club has continued their mission to help not only the local Erie community, but countries around the world with the Villa Shoe Drive. The drive started Jan. 5 and continued through Jan. 19.
Faculty and students were called to go through their closets, pull out their old shoes, and drop them off outside Villa’s main office door. All donated shoes are given to the Chosen Mission Project, which sends the shoes to third-world countries. These donated shoes allow the people in these countries to open their own shoe businesses and support their families.
This opportunity to help others has been taken very seriously by the Interact Club, and the work they have put into the drive is admirable.
Villa mathematics teacher Mrs. Tucker has a passion for recycling and reusing whenever she can. Since she is one of the advisors for the Interact Club, she helped to organize this year’s drive. This was their third drive in the last six years, and it is very dear to Mrs. Tucker’s heart.
“This shoe drive gets to the core of the desire to never waste God’s resources or blessings,” Mrs. Tucker said. “The fact that Chosen Mission Project uses shoes in any condition, teaches people in other countries how to refurbish them, and helps them open their own shoe businesses is amazing. This is how God designed us to work together and share our resources, especially when we’re not using them anymore.”
Villa senior Emma Sanders has helped significantly with this year’s drive as well. She was personally in contact with the Chosen Mission Project, and they were able to educate her on the exact process that occurs after the shoes are donated and the major benefits that the donations will have. She used the information she learned to create a poster that was presented to the school, which helped encourage students to search for and donate their shoes. She will also help with matching, banding, and bagging the shoes to prepare them for the organization.
“This experience has been wonderful,“ Emma said. “What has made this such a remarkable project in particular is the positive and unique aid it offers for people in the developing countries which the shoes are sent to. Rather than simply donating the shoes to everyday people, they are given to low-income entrepreneurs to help create micro-enterprise opportunities, which are essentially small businesses. It’s amazing to think that something as simple as an unwanted pair of shoes can be the beginning of such impactful change in other countries.”
The Interact Club as a whole is immensely grateful for each and every pair of shoes they received, and they cannot wait for them to help better the world.
