Peace of Mind Organizing

An easy (and touching) way to help those in need

13 June 2012

At the 2011 NAPO conference, I was among the many who shed tears watching the video about Soles4Souls a non-profit group that collects shoes to deliver to shoeless people in Haiti and elsewhere. That year, NAPO honored Soles4Souls with its Organizing Excellence Award, for the incredible organizational effort behind the shoe collection and distribution.

At that conference, NAPO also announced its partnership with Soles4Souls to collect unwanted shoes for the group. Organizers from around the country stepped up and collected over 100,000 pairs of shoes in just eight months.

The partnership continues, which is how I learned about this video and song, The Choice, created by Billy Gillman and 18 top country artists (including Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers and LeAnn Rimes), to benefit Soles 4 Souls.

I’m not a big fan of modern country music, but I am a big fan of charity group songs (We Are the World, anyone?) and once again I choked up watching a Soles 4 Souls video.

Here it is:

The best part? If you download the song at iTunes for $1.29, you’ll donate a pair of shoes for someone who needs it.

Incidentally, if you’re in St. Louis, NAPO St. Louis has taken on an alternative shoe collection effort. Locally, we have The Shoe Man Water Projects, which collects shoes that are sold to an overseas reseller, with the proceeds going to fund water-well drilling in Africa and elsewhere. We’ve set a goal of collecting 5,000 pairs of shoes by October. If you have any shoes to donate, feel free to contact me and I can give you details or figure out an easy way for you to do so.

Tagged with: charity, decluttering, napo, napo st. louis

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