San Jose Man Hits The Ground Running With Shoe Drive For The Needy
SAN JOSE (KCBS) - A San Jose man has put out a call for Bay Area residents to empty their closets for a good cause. He set his sights on spearheading the largest shoe drive ever for the needy.
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
Justin Wall said the idea for Shoes 4 The City came to him while he was running.
"I'm a runner and as runners we typically, you know, put a couple hundred miles on our shoes and then we switch them out for something new. They're perfectly good by normal standards but you know, they end up collecting dust sitting in our closets," Wall said. "So I thought, you know what, this is crazy. We've got to find a way to help people with all the shoes that we have in our closets."
After a recent race, he collected 200 pairs of shoes.
"As runners, I mean we're running probably you know 40, 50 miles a week and we only can put about 300 miles on them. So you get a new pair and those shoes, you don't want to throw them away. They're still really good, but we didn't have a use for them. So now we do, now we do."
Suffice it to say, Wall's idea started out on the right foot.
"We're distributing them now, but the idea is we want to work with races, schools, churches, companies, anyone who can put on a shoe drive to help collect shoes and we just want to give them away to people who need them."
Walls stressed that donations were welcome from all walks of life, not just serious runners.
"Everybody, you know, has all kinds of shoes and we're collecting all kinds of shoes and we'll continue to develop programs and partnerships with people who can help donate a lot of shoes."
Click here to learn more about Shoes 4 The City, or to donate a pair of your shoes.
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