One Day Without Shoes is an initiative to raise awareness of what it is like for children in the world that do no own a single pair or shoes in hopes of bringing awareness of what it is like.
They even have a toolkit to make rally signs, street stencils, t-shirt stencils, profile and banner pictures and other items to promote this event.
I plan on participating, but obviously, not everyone can do it all day, but you can still take a 15 minute walk around your neighborhood or a park with no shoes on to get and idea.
There are also numerous ways to donate or help.
Through your church
In the past, the church we attended had a drive to collect new shoes for missionaries from the church to take with them to pass out in the village. Personally, I think this is the most rewarding as you know exactly where the shoes go and hear stories about how excited the recipients are to to receive them.
Tom's Shoes
Tom's shoes, one of the sponsor of the event, will donate a pair of shoes to a child for each pair purchased.
Soles4Shoes
Soles4Shoes that collects new and gently used shoes for distribution to crisis areas and also runs a micro-business of shoes that are donated but cannot be used to give out, such as high heel shoes, to sell to collect money to support local economies (more info click here).
For locations to donate new and gently used shoes click here to see if there is a location in your area. If not and you would still like to contribute, they do have where you can donate $1 = 1 Pair (but there is a $5 minimum) and you can check out with Paypal.
Samaritan's Purse - Operation Christmas Child
This is not specifically a "shoe" donation, but it a shoebox filled with items for a child for Christmas, but you could include a pair of shoes. You get to pick if you want a boy or a girl and the age ranges of 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. For more information click here.
I participated last year but did not think to include a pair of shoes, but plan to this year. It is surprising how much you can pack into a shoe box if you arrange it strategically. I used this guide on Ebay
to select a pair of a boy's size 2 shoes for a boy 5-9 and will probably put that information on the outside of the box to assist in distributing to a boy that can use them.
Collection of boxes will be November 12-19 and to see if there is a donation location near you, click here.
No Nonsense
Although not directly involved in the project, No Nonsense currently has a Facebook promotion and will donate a pair of socks to someone in need (up to 500,000 pair) just for checking "Like" on Facebook. To go to their page on Facebook click here.
If you know of any other places that accept donations and distribute shoes to the needy or if you are participating in A Day Without Shoes feel free to post them in the comments below:)
