The San Diego Miramar Lions Club, partnered with The Salvation Army San Diego completed a December to January SHOE DRIVE for the Salvation Army’s community in need. All the donated shoes were in excellent condition with approximately 73 pairs of new shoes added to the gently used donation. In a single short month, the SDMLC PRIDE purchased and collected over 182 pairs of shoes. After collecting all the shoes, the SDMLC PRIDE came together to sort, tie, mate, and lysol spray all the donated shoes. As we worked together to box and load the shoes into vehicles for delivery, we learned it would take “TWO cars” to deliver the shoes to the Salvation Army Center in downtown San Diego because there were so many shoes.
Upon our arrival at The Salvation Army Center, we were greeted by their management team who were waiting for us in the parking lot: Cary Blanchette, Director of Development, Megan Dowell, Director of Homeless Services, Pam Davis, Director of Communication, and Mimi Williams, Social Media Coordinator, welcomed us all warmly. A pallet was placed in the center of the parking lot, and we began to unload the cars. Our shoe donation filled the entire pallet! And then, as luck would have it, the weather changed quickly and the rain began to fall. We all made a run for it to get the shoes into the warehouse quickly.
The Salvation Army will distribute these shoes to those individuals sheltered with them in their in-resident programs, their apartments, and their overall homeless needs. The Salvation Army management team indicated during our visit, after having viewed the shoes, that some of the donated shoes were most appropriate for many of their sheltered individuals to use in interviews and potentially obtaining jobs via these interviews.
Considering that this project fell over the Christmas holidays, the extended shelter-in-place order, the booming COVID numbers, and the New Year holiday, the PRIDE did a fabulous job. Credit to all who worked quickly to clean out those closets, talk to neighbors, friends, and relatives to pitch in, and found that special online site to donate shoes, shoes, shoes.
Great job everyone in pulling this project off over the holidays in just 30 days. Those in need will benefit greatly from your generous collection of shoes especially as the weather becomes damp and cold. We hope you will join us next year for our winter shoe drive.
