Shoe Donations to Homeless

I wanted to share this very heartfelt story I saw on T.V. yesterday so you can get some more details about it.


Jose

Feb 24, 2009 9:01 am US/Eastern

Shoe Donations To Help Poor, Homeless

Shoe Giveaway Begins At 10:00 a.m.

Reporting
Jorge Estevez
E-mail

MIAMI (CBS4) ―

These shoes dumped on the Palmetto Expressway are theinspiration for a program to provide new shoes for the homeless

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Related Stories

• Charity Collects Shoes Dumped On Palmetto (1/7/2009)
• Dumped Shoes Will Be Given Out In Haiti (1/6/2009)
• Thousands Of Shoes Dumped On Miami Expressway (1/3/2009)

A misstep along a South Florida highway has led to a step in the right direction for the neediest members of the South Florida community. A decision to send a windfall of shoes outside of the US instead of helping people at home is being corrected, and South Florida's homeless will benefit.

Tuesday, the Nashville-based nonprofit group "Soles 4 Souls", along with Invicta and Red Wing Shoes, will give away 1,000 new shoes at Camillus House, a Miami homeless shelter.

"Soles 4 Souls" is giving away the new shoes to show its gratitude after they recently picked up thousands of shoes that were mysteriously dumped along the Palmetto Expressway last month. As part of the cleanup, those shoes were donated to needy people in Haiti. The shoe charity has distributed 100,000 pairs of shoes to Haitians in the past four months.

Now, instead of giving shoes to those in need in Haiti, the organization is giving away shoes to those in need in South Florida.

"These are the sneakers they are going to be passing out," Keith Smith told CBS 4's Jorge Estevez as he pointed to the style of shoes that will be handed out.

Smith is not only a volunteer but also a client.

He is one of the people living at Camillus House during these tough times.

"You do a lot of walking during the day moving from one place to the other just trying to survive," said Smith, who was homeless for fifteen years.

"My story is one of drug abuse alcohol being homeless," said Smith, who is now clean for seven months.

"For someone who is homeless who is looking through the garbage can to see if someone threw away a pair of sneakers. Yes, this is big," said Sam Gil, who works at Camillus House.

Having a pair of shoes is also big for Smith, who received his own pair. "That means I can put a few more miles doing what I need to do," said Smith.

Camillus house will hand out a thousand shoes to the members in their program, but the group is now looking for other charities in South Florida to donate another 9 thousand pairs.

The shoe giveaway will begin at 10:00 a.m. and is expected to last for several hours.

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