Area schoolchildren have joined the Community Center’s fundraising effort to collect old shoes and are now helping to fill barrels before the January deadline.

“Shoes With Heart” started in November as a Community Center fundraiser and early in December, Southport Central School and Boothbay Region Elementary School joined the effort. All grades at Southport are helping to fill the collection barrel near the school office.

According to Jen Field, Community Center secretary and originator of the shoe collection project, the children are excited and enthusiastic. In just one week, 125 pairs of shoes were collected with their help.

At BRES, Assistant Principal Tricia Campbell “"has been wonderful,” sending 300 flyers home with every student, Field said. The school’s fifth and sixth graders are competing to see which classroom can put the most shoes into the collection barrels.  

Students at Edgecomb Eddy School will start collecting shoes when they return from the holiday break.

The shoe collection effort raises funds by collecting gently worn and new shoes, boots, sandals and sneakers in wearable condition. For every pound collected, the Community Center receives 40 cents.

The shoes are shipped to 25 developing nations where family businesses sell the shoes to create an income for their families. The program helps families survive in countries like Haiti, Uganda and India.

Because there is an international aspect to the shoe collection, students can learn about the countries where the shoes will go, Field explained. “They can also learn about public service, charity and helping people in need,” she added.

Sending the shoes to other countries to help impoverished people also helps with our local landfill. Parent corporation of the project, Funds2orgs, said 630 million pairs of shoes are thrown away every year and can take a lifetime to decompose.

The teams have a way to go to reach 2,500 pairs of shoes before the deadline. While the schools have until Jan. 11 to collect shoes, the Community Center will continue to accept donations in its collection barrel in the Meadow Mall until Jan. 31.

For more information, contact the Community Center at 633-9876.